


Changing Day After Day

by artikgato



Series: Souyowrimo 2017 [1]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: AU where Yosuke has a dungeon, Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boys Kissing, Crossdressing, Drinking, Established Relationship, Flirting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Ice Skating, Internalized Homophobia, Kissing, Love Confessions, Love Letters, M/M, Mistletoe, Morning After, November spoilers, Pining, Pre-Relationship, november - Freeform, small crossover with persona 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-02 17:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 37,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13323393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artikgato/pseuds/artikgato
Summary: Various one-shots written during November/December of 2017 for the Souyowrimo challenge. All are Gen - Teen, as I've already posted the NSFW ones separately. Chapter length and content will vary. These were already posted on Tumblr.





	1. Fancy Dress

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts are: Fancy Dress, Picnic, School, Clothes Swap, Cuddles, Cooking, Video Games, Travel, Confession, Holding Hands, A Date, Shadows, Beach, Sports, Amusement Park, Arts/Crafts/Writing, A Kiss, Christmas, Personas, Shopping, Tired, After School Hangouts, and Movies.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Souji Seta looked good in anything. This was one constant thing in Yosuke Hanamura’s ever changing life, one thing that he could always count on to be true.

Souji Seta looked good in anything. This was one constant thing in Yosuke Hanamura’s ever changing life, one thing that he could always count on to be true. And true it was - Yosuke had seen Souji in countless numbers of clothes and outfits over the nine year course of their friendship-turned-relationship. If there were such a thing as an expert in Souji Seta’s ability to pull off any outfit, no matter how weird, it was Yosuke Hanamura. It may have been his own severe, severe bias talking, but Yosuke was confident that Souji Seta could make any outfit look good. His boyfriend was supernaturally hot, is the point he was trying to get across.

He also had a way of managing to still surprise Yosuke with something new and ridiculous, even though Yosuke had been living with Souji’s particular brand of ridiculous for years now.

“Is that your Halloween costume?” Yosuke found himself asking, jaw practically on the floor.

“Think we’ll get any trick-or-treaters?” Souji asked, with a teasing wink, before pulling Yosuke into their apartment and shoving the door closed behind him.

“I hope not,” Yosuke rasped, because he felt like he’d had all the air knocked out of his lungs. Souji pushed him against their door, trapping him against it by planting his hands on either side of Yosuke’s head. His very nice, very strong hands that were currently covered in some very nice silk gloves. Yosuke gulped, attention shifting from the gloved hands back to the person that was currently leaning into him and smirking with lips that were definitely covered in bright red lipstick. It made his lips look very, very kissable. Or that may have been Yosuke’s bias talking again. Either way, he tried to lean in for a kiss, but Souji drew back with a little shake of his head.

“Not yet,” he teased, winking one eye that had some flawless winged eyeliner. Damn. He really went all out, didn’t he?

“You tease,” Yosuke protested, letting his head fall back against the door with a pout. Souji laughed. The movement made some of Souji’s hair slide against one of Yosuke’s cheeks, tickling him a little. Well, it wasn’t _exactly_ Souji’s hair - he _had_ grown it out a little since high school, but he’d never let it get _this_ long. It was a wig, a very nice wig granted, but Yosuke wasn’t really sure why Souji was wearing it in the first place. Or, for that matter, why he was wearing gloves, or lipstick, or winged eyeliner, or the floor-length black velvet dress. It was a very nice dress, and it looked _amazing_ on him, but...why?

“What brought this on?” Yosuke asked, and Souji shrugged.

“I saw it in a shop and thought it would look good on me,” the silver-haired man replied.

“It does,” Yosuke agreed, with a smirk. “But it would look better on the bedroom floor.”

“Oh?” Souji asked, trying and failing to hide a grin. “That was smooth.”

“I try,” Yosuke replied, managing a flirty wink of his own, even though his mouth was dry and his heart was in his throat. Souji leaned in then, kissing him softly and smirking at him when he shamelessly tried to chase his lips after he pulled away.

“I think we have some time before we’ll get trick-or-treaters,” Souji said. He slid one of his hands down the wall to take Yosuke’s hand.

“We live in an apartment, I don’t think we’ll get any anyway?” Yosuke said, letting himself get pulled along behind Souji. He noted a big witch hat and a broom on the couch as they passed it, Souji making a beeline for the bedroom.

“Even better,” he replied. “We can take our time tonight.”

“What about dinner?” Yosuke asked, even as he was tugged inside the bedroom and shoved onto the bed.

“I’m having it delivered,” Souji explained, moving to kneel on the bed, straddling Yosuke’s legs. In doing so, he revealed that there was a long slit up the side of the dress, nearly up to Souji’s hip, and at least one of his long legs was clad in a thigh-high black stocking. Yosuke groaned, both at the sight of the stocking and the idea of not having to cook dinner or wash dishes.

“You’re spoiling me.”


	2. Picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is this a date?”
> 
> Souji blinked up at Yosuke, a piece of strawberry halfway to his open mouth. He very carefully finished putting the strawberry into his mouth, and chewed and swallowed, before replying. 
> 
> “If you want it to be,” he answered.

“Is this a date?”

Souji blinked up at Yosuke, a piece of strawberry halfway to his open mouth. He very carefully finished putting the strawberry into his mouth, and chewed and swallowed, before replying. 

“If you want it to be,” he answered, with a great deal of hesitance in his voice. Yosuke hated it, almost as much as he hated just how  _ nervous _ the idea of this being a date made him feel. It was just Souji. His best friend. His partner. His bro. His - he gulped -  _ boyfriend _ . The label was so new and terrifying to him. Boyfriend. They were dating. He was dating Souji, and Souji was dating him. He liked Souji, and Souji liked him, and they were going out, and they were  _ boyfriends _ . And people that were dating tended to - well, go on picnics together. As dates. 

“It’s just - I thought it was gonna be, like, everybody? Or at least Nanako-chan? S-so I didn’t prepare, and-” Yosuke stammered, but Souji sighed and stood up, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yosuke, it’s fine. I know this is new to you,” Souji said, placating and calm and reassuring, and Yosuke  _ hated _ it.

“It’s not fine!” he blurted out. He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face and pushing it into his hair in aggravation. “I should be okay with this. I  _ want _ to be okay with this.”

“Hey, hey, c’mon, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Souji replied. He very slowly and carefully wrapped a hand around Yosuke’s wrist, and Yosuke let him peel his hand away from his face, looking up with red cheeks to meet silver eyes. Souji leaned in - slowly - and Yosuke hated how careful and slow and deliberate Souji had to be around him, but he let his eyes flutter shut and tilted his head, a signal to Souji that this was okay. He still jumped a little when Souji’s lips pressed against his, just a quick, light kiss. Yosuke couldn’t help pouting when Souji pulled away, and Souji frowned.

“No good?” he asked, but Yosuke shook his head.

“N-no...I...I wanted more,” he finally admitted, and he felt like his entire face was probably red, but the look of delight on Souji’s face was worth the embarrassment of admitting that. Souji leaned in again, and they shared a proper kiss. Yosuke could taste the strawberries that Souji had been eating before this, and it was kind of addictive. He found himself chasing the taste, slipping his tongue into Souji’s mouth and getting a moan in response from him. Souji pulled back after that, panting and licking his lips. He stared at Yosuke for a few seconds, before tugging on his hand, which he was still holding, getting Yosuke to sit down on the blanket. 

It was a really nice spread of food - too much food for just the two of them, or so Yosuke had thought. Listening to Souji listing off all of the foods he was planning on bringing had probably been where he’d gotten the idea that this picnic was going to be a group thing, in fact. There were all kinds of fruits and vegetables, snacks and candy, and even a bowl of rice, arranged in a circle around the centerpiece of the picnic, which were some freshly made croquettes. Yosuke knew they were freshly made, because just last night Souji had been asking him for suggestions on what to put in them. 

“You really outdid yourself,” Yosuke praised, reaching out for a croquette and biting into it. It was a potato croquette, perfectly crispy and delicious and golden brown. He must have made a pleased noise, because Souji chuckled in response. He swallowed the rest of the bite and grinned over at him.

“I can’t believe you did all this for me,” he continued, looking back over the blanket, then out to the Samegawa nearby. It was a perfect day, no clouds in sight, a slight breeze stirring the air. “It’s awesome, Partner,” he continued. Then, as an afterthought, he turned back to him. “You’re gonna spoil me, if you keep this up.”


	3. School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’ve said this before, Yosuke. It’s important to me that you can do what you love doing, even if it isn’t making you money right now. And besides, it isn’t like you’re freeloading.”  
> “Yeah, I bring you lunch when you’re running too late to pack it yourself,” Yosuke replied, with a wink.

Yosuke navigated the crowded hallways of the high school with ease, dodging through the sea of students as he made his way, visitor pass in hand. He didn’t come here every day or anything, but he’d made his way to the teachers’ lounge a handful of times before, so he at least knew the way. Souji looked up when he entered the room, smiling gratefully at him as he slid the door closed behind him. 

“Thanks, Partner. You’re a lifesaver,” Souji greeted as Yosuke approached his desk, taking the bag that Yosuke offered to him. As he had done several times before, he grabbed the closest nearby chair and turned it around, sitting down opposite Souji as the other man pushed papers and pens out of the way to make room for the lunch that he started unpacking.

“It’s the least I can do. You’re the one that makes all the money, I just stay at home and mess around with music programs all day,” Yosuke replied, reaching out and prying the lids off of the plastic containers that Souji was putting out on his desk. 

“Nonsense,” Souji replied, pulling two pairs of chopsticks out of the bag before setting it down. He passed a pair over to Yosuke. “I’ve said this before, Yosuke. It’s important to me that you can do what you love doing, even if it isn’t making you money right now. And besides, it isn’t like you’re freeloading.”

“Yeah, I bring you lunch when you’re running too late to pack it yourself,” Yosuke replied, with a wink, only to have Souji bap him on the head with the bigger end of his chopsticks. He laughed. “Okay, okay. I get it. So, how are your students?”

“You know how it is. The usual drama, that seems so much more important when you’re in high school, but isn’t really all that big of a deal when you think back to it years later,” Souji sighed. 

“Ooh, is it a love triangle? Sounds like a love triangle,” Yosuke asked, and Souji rolled his eyes.

“Why are you so interested in high school gossip?” he reprimanded, and Yosuke snorted.

“I’m not, but we’ve gotta have  _ something _ to talk about, or this lunch is gonna get boring,” he replied. Souji shrugged.

“I’m a high school literature teacher. My  _ life _ is boring,” Souji reminded him, and Yosuke shook his head.

“Except for where you part-time with a bunch of badasses that are fighting and studying Shadows,” he replied, lowering his voice a little at this.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t pay the bills,” Souji pointed out. They ate in silence for a little after that, Yosuke savoring Souji’s cooking even though it was now leftovers, until he got bored.

“So...any more students try to confess to you?” he asked, voice teasing. Souji’s cheeks colored a little at that, and he set his chopsticks down with a sigh.

“No, but…” he started, trailing off and looking uncomfortable. Yosuke sat up a little straighter in his seat, face going from teasing to serious instantly. 

“What is it?” he asked, and Souji sighed.

“Lately, another teacher has been making passes at me,” Souji started, with a frown. “I’ve been very polite when I’ve turned her down, but she just isn’t getting the hint…”

“Ah,” Yosuke replied, feeling guilty. “And you can’t tell her  _ exactly _ why you don’t want to date her.”

“Yeah…” Souji sighed in response. It wouldn’t exactly be good for Souji’s career if he admitted that he was in a relationship with another guy, no matter how much he wanted to admit that. It bugged Yosuke a lot, because he wanted to be open about their relationship too, but that was just how things had to be for now. 

“Maybe...if you started wearing a ring, she’d back off?” he suggested, but Souji shook his head.

“I don’t want to wear a ring just for that. I want us both to be able to wear rings,” he replied. Yosuke sighed.

“Yeah...me too,” he admitted. “But I mean, do you really think anyone would notice if we started wearing rings? Or even if they did, would they put two and two together?”

“...no,” Souji admitted, looking a little bashful. “So, are you proposing?”

“I’d want it to be a hell of a lot more romantic than this, Partner, and you know that,” Yosuke dismissed. “Besides, it’s not like I can afford rings right now.” Souji frowned at that, reaching across the desk and taking one of Yosuke’s hands in his. 

“Well, what if  _ I’m _ proposing?” he asked, and Yosuke blushed, but sighed in response.

“We’ve discussed this, Partner. Even if we get the rings, it’s not like we can get married for real or anything,” he replied.

“It doesn’t really matter if we can or not, does it? It would be nice, of course, but what matters more is the intent behind it. I want to be able to say I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Souji said, and Yosuke grinned a little, shaking his head in response.

“Proposing over lunch at your workplace...how romantic,” he teased. Souji scoffed at him.

“Well, how about we go out for a nice dinner tonight, and I’ll do it  _ then _ ,” he replied, and Yosuke had lived with him long enough to know by the sarcastic tone that he was half-serious. He chuckled. 

“It’s no fun if I know about it ahead of time,” he pointed out. “Plus, that wouldn’t leave any time to get the rings.”

“Rejecting me before I’ve even proposed,” Souji pouted. “How cruel.”

“What’s cruel is that your lunch is almost over, isn’t it?” Yosuke asked, scooting his chair back and standing up. Souji groaned.

“Don’t remind me,” he replied. Together they scooped the remnants of their lunch back into the bag, and Yosuke slung it over his shoulder, turning the chair back that he’d been sitting in. He did a quick look around to make sure they were still alone in the room, and then leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s lips.

“See you after work,” he said, and Souji nodded. He started to turn to leave, but Souji caught him by the upper arm, stopping him.

“We can still have that dinner tonight, if you want,” he said, and Yosuke looked delighted.

“Sure, sure. Where do you want to eat?” he asked. 

“There’s that coffee shop in Yongen-jaya that has the really good curry,” Souji suggested, and Yosuke managed to look even more delighted in response.

“Partner, you’re spoiling me!”


	4. Clothes Swap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I hate this,” Yosuke grumbled. Souji looked up, to see him holding up the red, plaid skirt and frowning at it. He paused in pulling on his own skirt, which was quite a bit longer. 
> 
> “Want to switch?” Souji offered.

“I hate this,” Yosuke grumbled. Souji looked up, to see him holding up the red, plaid skirt and frowning at it. He paused in pulling on his own skirt, which was quite a bit longer. 

“It’s your fault we got signed up in the first place, Yosuke-sempai,” Kanji grunted in response. He was struggling with his own dress. 

“I know that!” Yosuke barked, with a huff. “I just...Chie didn’t tell me the skirt would be so  _ short _ !” 

“Want to switch?” Souji offered, holding up his own skirt. Yosuke frowned over at him, looking from him to the skirt and back again.

“But then you’d have to wear this thing, Partner. It’s way too short!” he protested, and Souji shrugged, crossing over to stand in front of Yosuke and holding his own skirt out.

“I don’t mind. It’ll give me a chance to show off my legs,” he joked, and Yosuke sighed, grabbing the skirt from him and shoving the plaid skirt at him.

“You’re so weird, sometimes,” he complained. Then he frowned again. “Hm, but...won’t it look weird if you’re wearing the Yasogami uniform top and a red skirt? We should switch tops, too.”

“Sure,” Souji shrugged, setting the red skirt down on a nearby desk and tugging the uniform top off with no hesitation. He noticed that Yosuke was blushing when he handed over his uniform top, receiving the white shirt and yellow pullover in return. He considered teasing him about it, but decided to let it go. 

The skirt  _ was _ really short, though. Almost short enough that his boxers stuck out underneath it, so he had to roll them up a little and hoped that they would stay through the competition. He relented his black stockings to Yosuke as well, realizing that they looked out-of-place with the short red skirt now. 

Rise and Chie frowned at both of them when they entered the room to help with hair and makeup.

“Why did you switch?” Chie asked, with a pout.

“It was his idea!” Yosuke deflected, gesturing over to Souji. She sighed.

“I gave him an extra-short skirt to punish him,” she explained. Yosuke glared at her.

“As if having to participate in this contest wasn’t punishment enough!” he protested. Souji shrugged.

“I don’t know...I kind of like it. It’s very...freeing,” he said.

“You say the weirdest things sometimes, you know that, right?” Chie asked, and Souji just shrugged, managing to keep a straight face the entire time. She sighed.

“Well...I was gonna make his makeup look awful too, but now I don’t wanna,” she replied. “And the hair clip doesn’t go with his now outfit so...whatever.” She left, sliding the door closed behind her. Yosuke shrugged. Rise bounced over to Souji excitedly

“Sempai! That outfit looks soooo~ cute on you! You have really nice legs, I’m jealous!” she chirped, and he laughed.    
“Make me look cute, okay?” he asked, batting his eyelashes at her. She squealed in response.

“You’re  _ way _ too into this, Partner,” Yosuke complained.

“Might as well have fun, right?” he asked, as Rise pushed his bangs back and plopped the gray pigtail wig onto his head. She applied a little bit of makeup, not too much at his own request. Just some eyeliner, lip gloss, and a light amount of blush on his cheeks. She turned to Yosuke, who was sitting on one of the desks and fiddling with the long hem of his skirt.

“Want me to do your makeup too?” she asked, and he frowned.

“There’s no point in doing that. I don’t have a wig and I’m not gonna look like a girl with this hairstyle,” he grumped in response. She put a finger to her lips and thought for a second, before a devilish smirk appeared on her face.

“What if I could do something about your hair?” she asked, turning to rummage through the large bag she’d brought with her. Yosuke looked reluctant, but came over to stand beside Souji anyway. She brought a hair straightener out of her bag, a gleam in her eye, and Yosuke blanched.

“Hell no!” he refused. She pouted.

“But I think I could make you really cute, Yosuke-sempai!” she protested. He looked back down at her, and sighed.

“Ugh...fine, do whatever. Let’s just get this over with,” he relented. 

“It won’t be bad, I promise!” she cheered. About ten minutes later, Yosuke’s hair had been straightened out to fall just above his shoulders, and he had on the barest hint of makeup - just like Souji. She stepped back and observed her work, a pleased grin of triumph on her face. Souji grinned, and made a wolf-whistle sound.

“She really  _ did _ make you cute!” he teased, and Yosuke went red.

“Sh-shut up,” he grumbled in response, snatching up the mirror that Rise offered him. He looked shocked when he saw himself in the mirror. “Th-this is...uh, wow. Good job, Rise.”

In the end, Teddie ended up winning the vote by a landslide, but Souji...gained a lot of respect from his classmates, oddly enough. And even stranger, so did Yosuke.

> “Man, Narukami, you’ve got  _ guts _ goin’ on-stage in a skirt that short!” 
> 
> “Dude, I can’t believe you did that. You’re crazy!”
> 
> “If it weren’t for that foreigner, you would have won for sure, man!”
> 
> “I knew you’d make a pretty girl, Yosuke-sempai!”

And even more odd were all the love-letters Souji kept getting, for about a week after the pageant. Most of them were anonymous, but a few were signed by under-classmen, and they all had a similar vein: “You looked really cute in that outfit”, or “I never knew you could be so cute, Narukami-san!” or “You have really nice legs!”

“Yeah, I’ve been getting ‘em too,” Yosuke said, when Souji showed one in particular to him. “I’m sure they’re just a joke, well mine at least. Some of  _ yours _ might actually be serious.”

“Why would you think they’re a joke?” Souji asked, and Yosuke sighed.

“Dude, c’mon. I’m ‘the Junes kid’ around here. Nobody’s gonna be putting love letters in my locker unless they’re joking. And even if they  _ aren’t _ a joke, I’m not sure I want someone to like me just because I might have looked good in that stupid pageant,” Yosuke explained.

“You did look good, though,” Souji protested. He wasn’t lying, either. He hadn’t been able to get the image of Yosuke with straight hair and full, shiny lips and black tights under a long skirt out of his brain ever since. Yosuke rolled his eyes, slapping him on the shoulder.

“Sometimes it’s really hard to tell when you’re kidding, you know?” he complained. 

“I’m not. You looked good, and maybe that changed some people’s opinions about you?” Souji offered, and Yosuke sighed.

“Dude,” he protested.

“It changed  _ my  _ opinion about you,” Souji continued, and he saw Yosuke stiffen, and look at him in a panic. “And my opinion is that you were really cute.” Yosuke went beet red, and turned away from Souji in a huff. Just when Souji thought he’d pushed Yosuke a little too far, Yosuke muttered something.

“What was that?” Souji asked, and Yosuke sighed.

“I said you looked cute too,” Yosuke grumbled, a little louder. Then he started walking away, arms folded and back straight, and even the tips of his ears were red. Souji stared after him, before rushing to catch up. He couldn’t hide the pleased grin on his face.


	5. Cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Climbing under the blanket and scooting up next to Souji was not a hard decision to make. He just looked so pale, and sad, and cold sitting there at that broken kotatsu, alone, staring blankly at the TV.

Climbing under the blanket and scooting up next to Souji was not a hard decision to make. He just looked so pale, and sad, and  _ cold _ sitting there at that broken kotatsu,  _ alone _ , staring blankly at the TV. 

“Hey, Partner, it’ll be all right,” he started, getting Souji to break away from staring at the TV to look over at him instead. “Nanako-chan and Dojima-san are both really strong. They’ll make it, and they’ll be out of the hospital in no time. You’ll see.” 

Yosuke had never been good at providing comfort - that was definitely more Souji’s expertise - but he at least had to  _ try _ damn it, because the alternative was just going home and leaving his Partner here to this freezing cold, empty house.

Souji didn’t say anything in response, but shifted a little closer to Yosuke under the blanket, wrapping both arms around him and burying his face in Yosuke’s shoulder. Yosuke’s face turned red and he felt himself get hot all over, but that was fine, it was worth the embarrassment if the extra heat he was giving off was helping warm Souji up. He could feel how cold the silver-haired boy was. Unsure of what else to do, he wrapped his arms around Souji and tugged him a little closer. 

“Not gonna tell me about how this is for girls?” Souji asked after a long stretch of silence, voice muffled because his face was still pressed against Yosuke’s shoulder. Yosuke sighed.

“Not tonight,” he replied, his voice quiet. He reached up and patted Souji on the back, leaving his hand there and then starting to move it in circular motions, hoping it would soothe him a little. It did, if the fact that Souji stopped shaking was anything to go by. 

Eventually, Souji pulled away, scooting back a little to look up at Yosuke. They were both still under the kotatsu blanket, but Yosuke already felt colder. 

“T-thanks,” Souji started, biting his lip and looking down at the floor. “Um, you need to go home, right? So-”

“Hell no,” Yosuke interrupted, reaching out and putting a hand on Souji’s shoulder, prompting him to look up at Yosuke. “I’m not going anywhere tonight. I don’t want you to have to be alone.”

“Yosuke…” Souji replied, his shoulders slumping a little out of the stiff way he’d been holding himself. He looked relieved, even a little. 

“I mean it, Partner. I’ll call my folks and let ‘em know what’s going on, and I’ll sleep in my uniform if I have to, but I am  _ not _ leaving you alone right now,” Yosuke replied, firm. Souji gave a small sigh in response, and it looked like the tension was literally draining out of him. Yeah, this was the right decision. 

“Okay then...um, you can borrow some of my pajamas if you want. I don’t want you to have to sleep in your uniform,” Souji said. Yosuke nodded. Then he braced himself for the cold, wriggling out from under the blanket and going to rummage through his bag for his phone. The phone call was quick, because as luck would have it his mother picked up and he didn’t have to talk to his father, and she was instantly sympathetic when he explained the situation. 

“Now that that’s out of the way...do you want to go upstairs?” Yosuke asked, pocketing his phone after ending the call. Souji nodded, pushing away from the table and standing up. He instantly shivered as soon as he was out from under the blanket.

“It’s so cold in here, even with the heater on,” Yosuke complained, following behind Souji as he made his way upstairs and into his room. Souji went to his dresser and pulled out two sets of pajamas, handing one over to Yosuke. Yosuke went to the bathroom across the hallway to change, and came back to find Souji already in his own pajamas, just finishing laying out his futon. He went over to the closet to retrieve the spare futon, but Yosuke stopped him.

“It’s way too cold for that, Partner,” he said, dismissively. He wished he wasn’t blushing, but continued nonetheless. “We might as well share your futon, right?”

Souji stared at him for long enough that Yosuke started to worry that he was being too pushy, or weird, or maybe Souji didn’t like him now, but Souji eventually just nodded, turning away. If Yosuke’s eyes didn’t deceive him, the silver-haired boy appeared to be blushing too.

“Sure,” he said, and his voice sounded a little strained, but Yosuke decided not to say anything about it. “We can share. That makes sense. That way neither of us will get cold.”

“Exactly!” Yosuke exclaimed, probably a little too enthusiastically. Souji nodded, crossing over to the futon and climbing in, holding the covers open and looking over at Yosuke expectantly. He took a deep breath to psyche himself up, and crossed the room. He climbed in beside Souji and, even though it was a little bit of a tight fit, he...didn’t really mind. Souji cuddled right up to him, keeping an eye on his face to probably make sure that he wasn’t going to suddenly bolt. 

On another, less cold night he just might have run away, but tonight Yosuke was determined to be there for Souji, no matter how embarrassing the situation was or how much he may or may not have been enjoying lying next to him. With that thought, he threw an arm around Souji and tugged him closer, and Souji settled on his side against him, with his cheek resting on one of Yosuke’s collarbones. Yosuke felt Souji slip an arm around him and shift so that that he was pressed up against him completely, and it was honestly a little worrying how much he actually liked being this close to Souji. 

“Thanks, Yosuke,” Souji eventually said, his voice muffled from the way he was laying against Yosuke. 

 

“Any time, Partner,” Yosuke replied, his voice low and soft, as if speaking at his normal volume would ruin the moment, somehow. Eventually he felt Souji’s breathing even out, and let the steady rhythm lull him to sleep, cuddled up against Souji in his futon. It should have worried him how...right and  _ easy _ this all felt, but at the moment they was warm and content, and that was really all that mattered.


	6. Cooking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke Hanamura was not a morning person. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Given the choice, he would stay up well past midnight playing video games or mindlessly surfing the internet, and then sleep long into the afternoon.

Yosuke Hanamura was not a morning person. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Given the choice, he would stay up well past midnight playing video games or mindlessly surfing the internet, and then sleep long into the afternoon. Even though he had to wake up early for six out of seven days of the week for most of the year, he had still not developed the ability to be a morning person, or to even really wake up before ten in the morning. But here he was, downstairs in the kitchen of the Dojima household at six thirty in the goddamn morning, wide awake. He’d woken up to go to the bathroom and just hadn’t been able to get back to sleep, because his thoughts were going at about a million miles per hour. 

So he was cooking.

It made sense, to him at least. If he was going to be awake at such an ungodly hour, he might as well be useful. Even on Sundays, Souji tended to wake up at around 7am, and usually the first thing he did was make breakfast and coffee. How awesome was it going to be for him to shuffle downstairs with his hair and clothes adorably askew, only to find breakfast and coffee waiting for him at the table? Well...that was the plan, anyway.

Yosuke Hanamura was not a cook. He had his phone out and was frantically searching the web for how to make an omelet at the moment. He knew how to do it in theory, but in practice it was turning out to be...way harder than he expected. At least he’d gotten the coffee and toast right, though those weren’t exactly difficult. He didn’t want to burn the omelets, mainly because he’d unknowingly used the last of the eggs, and once he’d figured that out he’d felt bad. 

The hardest part was definitely waiting for the omelette to cook before he could fold it in on itself. It seemed like it was taking forever, and the impulse to play a game on his phone was something he was constantly having to ignore. He knew that if he let his thoughts wander too much, they were just going to wander back to last night, and then he’d get distracted…

...he got distracted anyway. Fortunately, he managed to save the first omelette before it got too badly burned. He decided that he’d eat that one, and resolved to make the second one perfect. Into the pan went some butter, then the egg mixture…

Eventually, he heard the telltale sound of feet on the stairs. In his haste he plated the second omelette too early, resulting in it being slightly undercooked. 

“Hm? Yosuke?” Souji asked, and he put on a big grin anyway, scooping up the first plate and turning to face his Partner.

“Surprise! I made breakfast,” he said. “They’re omelettes! One of them is a little overcooked and the other one is undercooked, but they’re still edible, so…” Souji blinked at him, looking from the plates to the table, where the toast and coffee were already set out, and then back up to him. His hair was a mess, and his shirt was hanging a little sideways and exposing a shoulder - and the red marks Yosuke had left on it last night. 

“I didn’t know you could cook,” Souji said, sliding into one of the seats and still looking a bit stunned. Despite being a morning person, Souji still took a while to really ‘wake up’. 

“They’re just omelettes, Partner,” Yosuke dismissed, moving over to stand in front of the table. “So do you want overcooked or undercooked?” 

“Overcooked is fine,” Souji replied, reaching out for the mug full of coffee at his seat. He took a sip, and his face lit up. “Wow, you got this perfect! How did you know how much cream and sugar I like?”

“I paid attention the last time we went out for coffee,” Yosuke explained, looking sheepish. Souji looked impressed. 

“That was during Golden Week, right? Wow,” he marveled. “And we weren’t even properly dating back then.”

“Yeah, well,” Yosuke replied, plopping into the seat across from Souji and sliding the overcooked omelette over to him. Souji took another swig of coffee, then proceeded to dig into the omelette. Yosuke let him get a few bites in before asking, “So, how is it?”

“Not bad,” Souji answered, thoughtfully. “A little crispy, but still good. Definitely better than the omelettes the girls made that one time.”

“Well, that’s because all I used was egg and milk,” Yosuke replied, shuddering at the memory. He’d had a bite of Rise’s omelette and...had spent a while wishing for death. He took a bite of his own omelette and determined that while a little more wiggly than he liked, it wasn’t half bad. Certainly edible. Better than wishing for death.

“So what made you want to cook me breakfast?” Souji eventually asked, having moved on from the omelette to the toast. He leaned forward, smirking at him. “Was the sex _that_ _good_?”

Yosuke turned bright red, but also sputtered out a laugh. Souji laughed with him. “Well, I guess it  _ wasn’t _ the sex, then.”

“I just couldn’t sleep,” Yosuke admitted, after he managed to catch his breath from the laughter. “I kept just...thinking. About stuff.”

“Stuff?” Souji asked.

“About...us,” Yosuke finished. Souji nodded.

“About the sex,” he said, and Yosuke sighed.

“Not  _ just _ about the sex,” he corrected. “But, I mean...it was a big deal, okay? For me, at least.”

“It was important for me too, don’t worry,” Souji explained, reaching over and putting a hand over one of Yosuke’s, making him realize that he’d been fidgeting with his spoon where it was resting on the table. “It was a big step for us. I’m just glad you didn’t run away screaming.”

“The ‘old’ me would have,” Yosuke admitted, looking down at their hands and smiling. “The ‘me’ from a year ago, I mean. Man, who would have thought so much could have changed in a year?”

“I’m really proud of you, you know?” Souji asked, and Yosuke snorted.

“What, for letting you do me in the butt without running away?” he asked. Souji made a face at him.

“Oh, yes, I’m definitely  _ only _ proud of you for that,” he replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. Yosuke laughed.

“Kidding, kidding. But...thanks, Partner. I’m proud of me, too. I’m proud of  _ us _ ,” he said. Souji squeezed the hand that he was still holding.

“So, are you always going to make breakfast after every time we have sex, or…?” Souji asked. Yosuke rolled his eyes, but squeezed back.

“That depends. Are you gonna let me top next time?” he asked.

“We decided that with a coin flip, Yosuke,” Souji pointed out. Yosuke shrugged.

“Yeah, because that was the only way to be fair. But we’re equals, right? So I should get to top next time,” he said. Souji chuckled.

“Maybe I’ll make the breakfast next time, then,” he suggested, and Yosuke’s face lit up. 

“Really? Ooh, what are you gonna make?” he asked. 

“Well, Nanako likes Western breakfast, like eggs and toast, so that’s what they usually have on hand here. Hmm... I found a quiche recipe I’ve been wanting to try out, so maybe that?” Souji replied.

“I’m looking forward to whatever it is,” Yosuke said. He stood up and gathered up their empty dishes, managing to steal a kiss from Souji while he did. They discussed all of their favorite breakfast foods while they cleaned up, their conversation transitioning into what they were going to do for the rest of the day. It was such a mundane thing, but it was a memory that would really stick out to Yosuke in the coming months of Souji being back in Tokyo and Yosuke studying hard so that he could hopefully join him after they both graduated. It was a little crystallized memory of a perfect morning with imperfect omelettes, and Yosuke treasured it.


	7. Video Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re good at Dance Dance Revolution,” Souji said, mouth turned up into a little smirk. Yosuke grinned at him.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re good at Dance Dance Revolution,” Souji said, mouth turned up into a little smirk. Yosuke grinned at him.

“I’m just glad that they still have this machine here. And that I remembered that it was here! Man, it has been  _ way _ too long since I’ve been in Tokyo,” Yosuke replied, his voice taking on a wistful tone. He excitedly dragged Souji onto the machine, digging in his pocket for change to play the game. Souji tried to protest.

“You don’t have to pay for me, Yosuke. I don’t even know how to play!” he objected. Yosuke put coins in the machine for him anyway.

“It’s not that hard to learn. I’ll pick an easy song, I swear!” Yosuke exclaimed, turning to Souji and giving him the unfair puppy-dog eyes that the brunette  _ knew _ he couldn’t resist. He sighed, but relented with a nod, and Yosuke grinned in response, turning back to the machine. He spent a while fiddling with settings and scrolling through songs, before landing on a song called ‘Graduation’.

“This one’s slow, so it shouldn’t be hard to play. Just give it a try, Partner!” Yosuke encouraged. Souji nodded, then noticed that Yosuke got into a stance that was actually really similar to how he’d stand at the beginning of a battle in the Shadow world - feet apart, hands down by his sides. A quick glance down and he realized that while Souji himself was standing in the center of the dance pad, ready to move his feet onto the arrows, Yosuke was already standing on the left and right arrows. Souji quickly moved to match him. 

The song started, and out of the corner of his eye, Souji noticed Yosuke start instantly nodding his head to the beat of the song, and almost immediately he started moving his feet. Souji considered just watching Yosuke play, but saw the first arrow appear on his side of the screen, and scrambled to step in time with it. 

The whole song was like that - he was vaguely aware of Yosuke moving and stepping in time with the beat, and judging by the glowing rainbow bar at the top of his screen he was hitting every arrow in time. Souji on the other hand only managed to get the timing right by the end of the song, but was surprised that his score ended up as a B. 

“Hey! Great job for your first song!” Yosuke cheered, patting him on the back excitedly. Souji glanced over to Yosuke’s side, seeing a score that was many, many times bigger than his, and that the grade he had been given was apparently a double A.

“What is a double A?” Souji asked, and Yosuke sighed.

“I should’ve gotten a triple A,” Yosuke complained. “I did the whole song without missing any arrows, but I got an ‘okay’ on one of them. Just one!”

“What?” Souji asked, and Yosuke laughed.

“Right, that probably sounds like word salad to you. Basically, if your timing is perfect you’ll get an ‘excellent’, and if it’s just barely too soon or too late you get a ‘great’. You can get a full combo and get a triple A with either of those. But if you’re just a little too early or late, you’ll get an ‘okay’, which will break your combo.”

“Ah,” Souji replied. 

“Anyway, we’ve got another song. Do you want to pick?” Yosuke asked. Souji shrugged.

“You’re the expert, you pick,” he replied. Yosuke scrolled through the songs for a moment.

“Hmm...gotta be something easy, but not boring like the last one...I guess this’ll do,” he muttered to himself. He looked back at Souji. “This one’s a little faster, but you should still be able to do it.”

“Sure,” Souji agreed, and Yosuke chose a song called ‘Daikenkai’. 

One minute and forty-six seconds later, Yosuke was leaning back against the metal bar behind him, panting to catch his breath, with a big letter ‘B’ displayed on the screen. Souji had barely scraped by with a ‘C’ rating, though he was pretty sure he should have failed the song as he’d missed more arrows than he’d actually gotten. 

“That song is a lot harder than I remember it being,” Yosuke wheezed, holding his stomach as he struggled to stand back upright. 

Souji chuckled. “At least we passed, right?” he asked. 

Yosuke groaned and staggered off of the machine. “I need something to drink,” he gasped, and Souji followed him, concerned.

“Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll go get us drinks, all right?” he asked, and Yosuke nodded, wobbling over to a nearby bench and all but collapsing into it. Souji headed for the entrance to the arcade, ducking out of it and into the coffee shop next door. He soon returned with a bottled water for Yosuke and a fruit tea for himself. Yosuke looked at him like he’d just saved his life when he returned and handed over the bottle of water, uncapping it and immediately gulping down half of the bottle.

“Whew! Thanks, Partner, you’re the best,” he sighed in response. Souji nodded, sipping his fruit tea in silence. Yosuke put the bottle down and stood up, stretching his hands up over his head and giving Souji a very nice view of his stomach, which Souji appreciated with only a little bit of guilt.

“Mind if I play a few more songs?” he asked, and Souji nodded.

“I’ll just watch,” he said, and Yosuke frowned.

“You don’t like it?” he asked, and Souji shook his head.

“It’s not that! I’m just not very good at it,” he explained.

“I think you’d be pretty good with practice but...I mean, if you really don’t mind just watching…” he trailed off, turning back toward the machine when Souji nodded at him. Souji kept sipping his tea, observing as Yosuke selected another song, though he couldn’t see the title from where he was sitting. He watched as Yosuke took up his familiar stance, nodding and tapping a foot to acclimate himself to the beat, and then...he just started to move. The way he played was so fluid, crossing his feet and hopping around and moving his upper body along with his feet. It was mesmerizing, to be honest. 

Souji kind of... _ really _ appreciated the view. 

He felt a little bit guilty, though, because he was fairly certain that if Yosuke knew just  _ how much _ he was appreciating the view, he’d be pretty angry. But, really, it wasn’t entirely Souji’s fault. Yosuke was just looked so comfortable and natural up on that machine, hitting every note with a finesse that he rarely displayed in his day-to-day life. It was quite a sight to see. That, and from where he was sitting, Souji had a  _ great _ view of Yosuke’s ass.

Okay, maybe he should have been feeling a little more guilty than he already was. 

After his two songs were up, Yosuke shuffled back over to plop down next to Souji again, draining the rest of the bottle. 

“That was really impressive, Yosuke,” Souji complimented. Yosuke scoffed, and Souji frowned. “No, I really mean it.”

“Aw, stop it Partner,” Yosuke deflected, but Souji pressed on.

“The way you move when you play that game is so fluid,” he continued, despite Yosuke making noises of protest. “I knew you were a good dancer because of everything that happened with the Love Meets Bonds festival, but, Yosuke, you are a  _ really _ good dancer.

“Dude,” Yosuke said, cheeks red. Souji chuckled.

“Sorry, but it’s true,” he finished. 

“It’s just DDR!” Yosuke protested. Souji finally relented, with a shrug. 

“If you say so,” he replied. “Thanks for dragging me in here, by the way. I promise I had fun.”

“You only got to play two songs and then watched me for a while,” Yosuke pointed out.

“It was fun. I liked watching you dance,” Souji said, and Yosuke sighed.

“You say such weird things,” he grumbled. Then he stood up, prompting Souji to stand up as well. “Anyway, we’ll have to come back here again before I go back to Inaba.”

“Sure,” Souji replied. “And the next time you come visit me.”

“And hey, we can come here all the time if I manage to pass my entrance exams and get into a school around here,” Yosuke replied. Souji nodded, walking beside him as they left the arcade. 

He really had enjoyed watching Yosuke dance. Playing had been surprisingly fun too. It really shouldn’t have been that surprising, though, since he liked doing just about everything with Yosuke. Maybe one day he’d work up the courage to tell him that but...today was not that day. Today he would drag Yosuke into an ice cream shop and insist on buying him whatever flavor he wanted. And then, later, once they’d gone back to Souji’s place for the night, currently devoid of all parents, he’d make curry from scratch for Yosuke just because he could, and they’d stay up late talking and playing video games, just because they could. 


	8. Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Souji had been absolutely enamored with Inaba nearly from the instant he’d set foot on the stairs leading out of the Yasoinaba station platform.

Souji had been absolutely enamored with Inaba nearly from the instant he’d set foot on the stairs leading out of the Yasoinaba station platform. His mother, by contrast, had left the little town as soon as she’d been able to, going to Tokyo for school and then never going back. Not to visit her little brother when he got married or had a kid,  and not to let her own son meet his relatives. She had never once gone back, and Souji just couldn’t understand her in that regard. Then again, she’d been flabbergasted when he’d expressed a desire to move back there when he was done with college. Souji supposed it was the ultimate cliche - someone who grew up in the city longing for a life in the countryside, and vice-versa. 

Yosuke had been different, though. He’d hated Inaba when he first set foot in the small town. It had been too different from the city, there had been nothing to do and nowhere to go, and everyone had seemed to hate him because of Junes. That had all slowly started to change for him when Souji moved to town. He wasn’t truly aware of when the change had happened, only that one day he’d found that he’d grown fond of the little town, even though there was  _ still _ nothing to do, nowhere to go, and most of the people still resented him because of Junes. The town hadn’t changed, but Yosuke had. He’d learned to love Inaba in spite of all of that...because Inaba had been where he’d met Souji, and grown so close to him.

“I’ll bet one of the houses near Dojima-san’s place would be cheap enough to afford,” Souji said one day, kind of out-of-the-blue. They were huddled together on their cheap and only somewhat comfortable couch, under a blanket, trying to keep warm. Yosuke was playing a handheld video game, spread out on the couch with his feet dangling off the side, while Souji was curled up against him, head resting just below his chin. He’d been reading something on his phone before he’d just kind of blurted that out. Yosuke paused his game and looked down at Souji, blinking.

“Okay?” he prompted.

“We were talking about moving back to Inaba after we both finish school,” Souji clarified, and Yosuke nodded. They had been talking about that...four hours ago. He shrugged. 

“I always thought we’d have to get an apartment in Okina,” Yosuke replied.

“Nah, I think we could afford a house. I’ll get a job at the hospital, and you can work from home. And we’ll have a nice little house with nice furniture,” Souji replied, and Yosuke gave him a wry grin.

“And a kotatsu,” he said. Souji laughed.

“Yeah, with a bowl of tangerines and everything. It’ll be nice and warm,” he added.

“And we’ll be able to eat more than ramen and curry,” Yosuke continued. “N-not that I don’t like your curry, Partner!”

“Don’t worry, I get what you mean,” Souji replied, with a dreamy sigh. “Donburi would be nice every once in a while. Or a hotpot!” 

“Ugh, now you’re making me hungry,” Yosuke complained. Souji giggled.

“Sorry,” he said, without an ounce of actual remorse in his voice. “We’ll have to make sure we get a house with a guest bedroom, though.”

“Yeah, I’m sure Rise will want to visit all the time,” Yosuke agreed. He put down the video game he’d been playing, letting the hand that had been holding it fall onto Souji’s head and idly start to pet his hair. Souji shifted, shamelessly nuzzling his hand in response, and he felt Yosuke give a silent laugh in response, but kept petting him. 

“Yeah, Rise will visit for sure,” Souji said, after a moment. “And Naoto, if she can ever get a break in her cases. And Teddie, too.”

“I just hope we can afford a guest room,” Yosuke sighed. 

“We’ll make it work,” Souji declared. Yosuke just kept petting. “And, want to know the best thing about moving back to Inaba?”

“The kotatsu?” Yosuke joked. Souji shook his head in response.

“We won’t have to be on the train for hours just to go home for the holidays,” Souji pointed out. 

“I can’t wait,” Yosuke replied, and Souji laughed. “...gotta admit though, I’m looking forward more to all the stuff you’ll be able to cook. I kind of really want hot pot now.”

“Hmm...I think we could afford the ingredients for a small one this week,” Souji replied. “...but we’d have to get off of the couch and go outside to get them.”

“Too cold for that,” Yosuke complained. He stopped petting Souji to circle his arms around him and pull him a little tighter against him. Souji made a contented noise and snuggled up against him.

“Guess we’ll starve, then,” he said.

“Guess so,” Yosuke agreed. They ended up falling asleep on the couch and had to put up with instant ramen, but Souji decided that he’d stop by a grocery store after classes the following day, and they’d have hot pot for dinner tomorrow. Yosuke jokingly asked Souji to marry him, and Souji accused him of only loving him for his cooking. They spent the rest of the night making out and then dozing off on the couch, even though they both should have been studying.


	9. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What’s got you in a good mood this morning, Hanamura?” Chie grumbled at him. He reached into his bag and tugged out a piece of light orange paper, which Souji recognized right away, and waved it around in front of himself.
> 
> “I got a confession in my locker!” he announced to them.

It all started with an innocent conversation at lunch.

“Man, did you guys hear about Satsuma in 2-C?” Yosuke asked, just as the four of them sat down to eat lunch in their usual spot on the roof. Chie rolled her eyes.

“Not all of us are gossip-mongers like you are, Yosuke,” she chided. Yosuke glowered at her, and Yukiko giggled. 

“What happened?” Souji asked, because he wanted to keep the conversation going, and he really didn’t like it when Chie shut Yosuke down like that. Yosuke brightened a little, turning to him.

“He got confessed to by an underclassman! She dropped a note in his locker and everything. I didn’t even know that people still did the note in the locker thing nowadays,” Yosuke explained. 

“I get notes in my locker all the time,” Yukiko said. Yosuke looked surprised.

“Yeah, even I’ve gotten a couple of notes in my locker,” Chie added.

“Same here,” Souji chimed in. Yosuke turned to him, with a pout.

“You’ve only been here for like a month! What the heck?!” he demanded. Chie laughed.

“Aww, Yosuke, are you hoping to get a love confession in your locker too?” she teased. 

“So what if I am?” Yosuke mumbled, frowning down at his food. 

“It gets annoying after a while,” Yukiko said, trying to sound consoling, but it only caused Yosuke to sulk even more.

“Agh, never mind!” he grumbled, tearing into his cup ramen as a way to end the conversation. 

So it was that, a few months later, the information was there in the back of Souji’s head that Yosuke wanted to get notes in his locker. A few months, a few ventures into the TV world, and a whole lot of hanging out with Yosuke had caused Souji to develop a bit of a crush on him. He knew it was dumb for a multitude of reasons, many of which were Yosuke’s vehement dislike of anything and everything even slightly gay. So, Souji decided the best thing to do would be to just ignore his feelings. It would only be a few months, anyway, before he had to go back to the city.

That was, of course, way easier said than done. The more time he spent with Yosuke the more his feelings grew, and the more time he  _ wanted _ to spend with Yosuke, and the more his feelings grew... It was a vicious cycle, and Souji knew that if he didn’t do something about it he was going to just end up blurting out his feelings one day and ruin what was turning into the best friendship he’d ever had. And then one night, folding his stack of colorful paper into origami, he arrived at the answer to his problems: the paper in his hands. He couldn’t tell Yosuke how he felt -  _ directly _ . But he could tell him, in a way at least, and probably boost his self-confidence at the same time. So he grabbed a pen and got to work. 

He knew his idea had been a good one when, the next day, Yosuke showed up to homeroom grinning his ass off.

“What’s got you in a good mood this morning, Hanamura?” Chie grumbled at him. He reached into his bag and tugged out a piece of light orange paper, which Souji recognized right away, and waved it around in front of himself.

“I got a confession in my locker!” he announced to them.

“Really?” Chie asked, reaching for the paper. She read it, blinking. “Huh. You really did.”

“What’s with that ‘really’? You don’t think I’m worth confessing to?” he asked.

“I think whoever wrote this must have some kind of brain damage,” she joked, and Yosuke pouted. He turned to Souji. 

“What do you think, Partner? Think it’s legit?” he asked. Even though he knew damn well what was on the paper, Souji took it and read over it again. He’d made sure not to use his usual handwriting, just in case Yosuke paid attention, but the words were still clear and legible:

> ‘I really like you a lot. You are cute, and funny, and nice to be around.’ 

That was all that he’d allowed himself to write. There were probably about half a dozen crumpled up pieces of orange origami paper in his wastebasket back in his room, where he’d realized after the fact that he’d written something that could point to his identity. 

“It isn’t signed,” Yukiko, who had leaned over Souji’s shoulder to read, pointed out. Yosuke frowned at that, taking the note back from Souji.

“Yeah, I know. I’m really curious about who wrote it,” he sighed. “But hey, someone out there likes me, right? They’re bound to want to confess face-to-face some time!” 

“Maybe,” Chie replied, with a shrug. Yosuke started to respond, but Kashiwagi entered the classroom at that point, and all discussion came to an immediate halt

The first note had felt good to write. It was nice to get that off of his chest, even if Souji knew that Yosuke would never find out it was from him. So a couple of weeks later he found himself sitting down at his work table again, another piece of orange origami paper in front of him. 

> ‘I still really like you. You’re a good person, and nobody appreciates that.’

And then, a couple of weeks later, 

> ‘I still like you. I wish I could tell you in person.’

“What do you think she means by that?” Yosuke asked. Souji refrained from sighing. Yosuke had been referring to the ‘mystery person’ slipping notes into his locker as ‘she’ for a while now, and Souji couldn’t exactly correct him, but...it was a big reminder of why he was having to write the notes in the first place. 

“She’s probably too embarrassed to tell you in person,” Chie explained. 

“Maybe…” Yosuke replied, with a frown. 

“Perhaps the person writing the notes thinks that they aren’t your type?” Souji suggested, before he could think the better of it. Yosuke arched an eyebrow.

“Really? I mean...I guess?” he asked. He thought for a second, and then looked horrified. “Oh no, you don’t think it’s Hanako, do you?” 

“I don’t think you’re  _ her _ type,” Chie replied. Yosuke let out a relieved breath in response.

“Yeah, the handwriting doesn’t look like hers anyway. It looks like it should belong to a pretty girl,” Yosuke remarked. He sighed. “Ah, oh well. Maybe one day she’ll confess in person.”

“Maybe,” Souji replied. With a frown. 

> ‘I’m afraid to meet you in person, because you won’t like me.’

“See, it’s just like Souji said! She’s afraid that you won’t like her because she isn’t your type,” Chie said, handing the latest note back to a frowning Yosuke.

“Well how does  _ she _ know?” Yosuke replied, with a groan. 

“Maybe they aren’t a  _ she _ , Yosuke-sempai,” Kanji spoke up, halfway around a piece of melon pan that he was eating. Yosuke’s eyes widened, and he looked alarmed.

“Wh-wh-what makes you think that?” he demanded, stalking over to Kanji, orange note in hand. 

“I dunno, just a hunch,” Kanji mumbled in response, swallowing a big bite of the bread before continuing. “I mean, why do you think the person giving you these notes is a girl?”

“Be-because!” Yosuke sputtered. “I mean, the handwriting is too nice to belong to a guy!”

“Sempai has nice handwriting,” Rise pointed out. Souji felt a sudden panic start to set in when Yosuke turned to look at him.

“Okay, but Partner’s the exception to the rule,” Yosuke replied. “Anyway, there’s no way some guy is writing me love letters, right? It’s just a shy girl with no self confidence or something.”

They all returned to their lunches after that, making other small talk. Luckily Souji didn’t usually talk as much, so nobody noticed if he was a little quieter than usual. 

After that, Souji resolved to stop leaving letters in Yosuke’s locker. Someone was bound to see him eventually anyway, so it was probably better if he just stopped before he got caught. He kept writing the notes, though, because even if the intended recipient wasn’t ever going to see them, it still made him feel a little better to get his feelings out in the open. At first he was just balling them up and throwing them away, but eventually he reasoned that he might as well do something with them, so he started folding them into paper cranes. A couple of months came and went, Yosuke lamented about how he wasn’t getting any more notes, Chie joked that he’d finally scared off his would-be girlfriend, and all was forgotten. 

Until November.

Yosuke was over for what felt like the thousandth time for a study session, in preparation for their upcoming final exams. He’d been over so many times before and had never found the orange cranes. He’d poked in to what felt like every corner of Souji’s room once, looking for his ‘stash’ as he put it, and hadn’t found them. And even if he  _ did _ find them, chances were he wouldn’t think anything was weird enough to examine them closely or unfold one, right? Boy, was Souji wrong. 

He came back upstairs after leaving a pot of curry on the stove to simmer, ready to get Yosuke back on the task of studying. He assumed, correctly, that rather than studying on his own Yosuke had gotten bored and started doing something else. He just hadn’t been expecting to see Yosuke standing by his desk, holding an unfolded crane and staring at it with wide eyes. 

“S-Souji,” Yosuke stammered, looking up from the unfolded crane to him, and Souji felt himself go a little pale. “You wrote this?”

He wanted to turn right back around and run back down the stairs. Instead he leaned back against the doorframe, biting his lip.

“Yeah” he answered, his voice tight. He managed to keep his eyes on Yosuke’s face for a few seconds, before having to avert his gaze to the floor. Yosuke was quiet for an unnervingly long time.

“The note says,” Yosuke started, hesitating for a second before continuing. “It says ‘I’ll never tell you this, but you mean the world to me. You’re my best friend, and I could never ruin that’. Souji...”

“I’m sorry,” Souji replied. He wanted to just slide down the doorframe and sit on the floor, but managed to keep himself standing up. “I know you wanted those notes to be from a girl.”

“I…” Yosuke started. He sighed. Souji heard the sound of rustling paper, and looked up to find Yosuke kneeling beside the open drawer, unfolding another crane.

“What are you doing?” he asked. Yosuke frowned, but read the note.

“‘I still really like you. I hope you are happy one day, even if it isn’t with me.’ Partner...” More rustling. “‘I’m so scared that one day you’ll figure all of this out and you’ll hate me.’ ‘I love watching you in the TV world, you’re so energetic and optimistic.’ ‘I want to tell you all of this so badly, but I don’t want to lose my best friend.’” A sigh. “Partner.”

“I won’t be shocked if you hate me,” Souji said, still looking at the floor. “Yes, I wrote all of the notes, this whole time.” He realized that he was blocking the doorway, so he stepped inside the room, at a loss for what to do. He ended up just sitting down on the floor and putting his head in his hands. “You can...I won’t be mad if you leave, Yosuke.”

“I’m not gonna leave,” Yosuke replied, his voice quiet. There was more rustling, and Souji lifted his head to see Yosuke determinedly opening another crane. He didn’t read the message aloud this time, just reached back into the drawer and opened another, and another. Eventually, he had a stack of rumpled up orange papers beside him. He finally looked up at Souji after reading what was presumably the last crane. 

“I’m gonna be honest,” Yosuke said, after a long silence. Souji wanted to look away, because he was pretty sure that Yosuke as about to tell him that their friendship was over. Yosuke swallowed audibly before continuing, his voice sounding strained. “I...I really appreciate all the good things you said about me.”

Huh…?

“It made me feel good about myself when I got the notes in my locker, before,” Yosuke continued. “And I’m kind of...I’m glad it’s been you this whole time, ‘cause I’ve gotta be honest, Partner, if it’s between some random girl that doesn’t even know me that well and you…” He sighed. “Augh, I’m messing this up.” To Souji’s surprise, he dropped the paper and stood up, making his way over to where Souji was sitting in a heap on the floor and kneeling down in front of him. Souji watched, baffled, as he reached down and took Souji’s hands in his.

“I know I’ve been kind of a jerk about things like this and this makes me a  _ total _ hypocrite but I like you too, Partner.”

Souji just stared up at him in shock for a few minutes, sure he was dreaming. Until Yosuke started to look nervous, he wasn’t entirely sure that he  _ wasn’t _ , in fact. 

“Can you pinch me? Because I must be dreaming,” he finally asked, and Yosuke frowned.

“You’re not dreaming,” he replied. Then he blushed and leaned forward, mumbling “I’ll prove it”, before kissing a shocked Souji. He couldn’t look at Souji when he pulled away.

“If I’m dreaming, I hope I never wake up,” Souji replied, after processing the fact that Yosuke had just  _ kissed him _ .

“You’re not dreaming!” Yosuke exclaimed, with a huff. That seemed to snap Souji out of his shocked state. He reached up and cupped one of Yosuke’s bright red cheeks, and Yosuke finally looked him in the eyes. 

“Is this really how you feel?” he asked. Yosuke somehow turned redder, but he nodded. “And you’re okay with us both being guys?”

“Only because it’s you, Partner,” Yosuke mumbled, ducking his head in embarrassment. Souji finally, finally felt himself smile. He shifted until he had his legs under him, tugging Yosuke up and into a hug. Yosuke buried his face in Souji’s shoulder with a relieved sigh, wrapping his arms around Souji in return. 

“So you’re not disappointed that the person writing all those notes didn’t turn out to be Hanako?” he asked, and he felt Yosuke chuckle.

“Not in the slightest,” he replied. “Though I’ve gotta say, Partner, you really  _ do _ have nice handwriting.”


	10. Holding Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The thing about holdings hands was, Yosuke was bad at it.

The thing about holdings hands was, Yosuke was bad at it. Well, not necessarily  _ bad _ , but he tended to over-think it, a  _ lot _ , and the whole thing turned into a mess. Were his hands sweaty? Was his skin dry? Was he supposed to lace his fingers together with the other person’s, or just curl his entire hand around theirs? Was he gripping too hard, or not hard enough? He stressed about it, which was stupid, because it was just holding hands, right? It shouldn’t have been  _ that _ big of a deal. 

It was easy with Souji, though. That really should have been some kind of sign, that Souji was going to be The One, the special person that made Yosuke feel so at ease that he didn’t over-think silly things like...like holding hands. 

Helping him up after he got knocked down in the TV world was something he did as second nature. Every time Souji held up a hand for a high-five, Yosuke would give him one and then they’d grip hands and it would turn into an impromptu arm-wrestle. The time they both misjudged the weather and didn’t have gloves, Yosuke just grabbed Souji’s hands between his and rubbed them together to warm them both up. But those were different, right? It was holding hands, but it wasn’t…  _ holding hands _ . And it wasn’t like they were  _ together _ , they were just friends. Just Partners.

The instant they started going out, though, that all changed for some dumb reason. Yosuke knew, logically, that Souji wouldn’t care if his hands were sweaty or dry, or if he grabbed too hard or not hard enough. He’d just be happy to hold Yosuke’s hand. And Yosuke  _ knew _ that, but every time they brushed hands when they were walking, or Souji casually moved his hand in Yosuke’s direction when they were sitting together, or Yosuke caught himself staring at Souji’s open hand, he clammed up. And this was just  _ holding hands _ . What was he going to do with himself if Souji wanted to kiss him, or anything more serious than that?

There was finally a breakthrough when one day, while they were out in Okina, they wandered into a pretty dense crowd - or had the crowd wandered into them? Either way, Yosuke reached out and grabbed Souji’s hand without thinking, to keep them from getting separated. He only realized they were holding hands at all when they finally made their way out of the crowd, and Souji squeezed his hand.

“So you  _ don’t _ have a problem with holding my hand,” he said, and he sounded relieved. Yosuke, predictably, immediately went red and panicked. 

“N-n-n-no, of course not! Why would think that, Partner?” he asked, belatedly realizing that he’d...snatched his hand away from Souji during his furious denial. Souji looked crestfallen, and he cursed himself. “Wait! Don’t be sad, I-”

“No, I get it. It’s...fine,” Souji replied.

“No, it is NOT fine!” Yosuke snapped in response. He grabbed the hand he’d been holding before in both of his hands, raising it up so that it was between them at chest-level, and gave it a firm squeeze. “Listen, Partner, Souji, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, okay?! I’m an idiot, and I keep worrying about stupid things like am I gonna squeeze your hand too tight, or not tight enough, or if my hands are too sweaty or too dry, or-”

“Yosuke,” Souji interrupted, and Yosuke looked up from their hands to see Souji giving him a big, genuine smile. His eyes were practically sparkling with mirth. Yosuke went red again.

“H-hey! Don’t make fun of me!” he protested.

“I’m not,” Souji defended. He reached his free hand up and placed it over Yosuke’s two hands, giving them a squeeze. “I’m really not. It’s just...that’s really cute.”

“It is not!” Yosuke protested, with a huff. “It totally sucks! I’m always so worried about that stuff that I get too nervous to hold your hand! A-and, like, if I’m getting all hung up about something like this, what’s it gonna be like if you wanna kiss me, or something?”

“About like this, I think,” Souji responded, and while Yosuke was trying to figure out what the heck he was talking about, he leaned forward and pressed a quick, gentle kiss to Yosuke’s lips. Yosuke froze up in response, staring at him in shock. “Sorry, but I couldn’t resist,” Souji apologized, looking sheepish. He squeezed Yosuke’s hands again. “But listen, Yosuke. Don’t worry about that stuff with me, okay? I don’t mind if your hand is sweaty or dry, or if you squeeze too tight. I just want to hold your hand.”

“Okay but, like, are we supposed to lace our fingers together, or…?” Yosuke asked, and Souji grinned in response. 

“Whatever you want to do,” he replied.

“And what if you need your hand for something?” Yosuke asked. Souji shrugged.

“I won’t mind,” he answered. 

“Okay but what if...what if I want to hold your hand all the time?” Yosuke blurted out. He went red again as soon as he realized what he said, but Souji grinned in response.

“That’s convenient, because I want to hold  _ your _ hand all the time,” he replied. Yosuke ducked his head in response, taking a deep breath to steady himself. When he looked back up his face was a little less red, at least, but he still looked a little nervous.

“Okay then, let’s start right now,” he suggested, and Souji nodded in response. Like they’d planned it, they changed their grip to slide two of their hands together, Yosuke linking their fingers together decidedly, the other two hands dropping to their opposite sides. They walked the rest of the way to the movie theater like that, and even though he was nervous as hell, Yosuke didn’t drop Souji’s hand when they bought their tickets, or when they went inside to sit down. And before he could develop any weird neuroses about kissing, he used his free hand to pull Souji into a kiss that lasted much longer than the last one. They ended up making out through most of the movie, and as a result neither of them actually paid one bit of attention to the plot, but it was fine. When they left they were still hand-in-hand, and happy.


	11. A Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He woke up the next morning to a glass of water and a bottle of medicine on his bedside table. He groaned in appreciation and lifted the bottle, only to find a note tucked underneath it:
> 
> ‘Meet me at the mall today after your class for our date! Don’t worry, I’m paying. xoxoxo, Souji’
> 
> “What the fuck,” Yosuke whispered, putting a hand over his face in response as he turned bright red.

Yosuke Hanamura liked to think that he wasn’t a lightweight when it came to alcohol. Compared to some he certainly was -- Rise and Yukiko were just as lightweight as they had pretended to be when they’d gone to Tatsumi Port Island for their school trip. But comparing himself to others made him not-so-sure. Specifically Souji. Either Souji had a crazy high tolerance for alcohol or he was good at faking it, and the fact that Yosuke wasn’t  _ sure _ really pissed him off. So he often found himself challenging Souji to drinking contests, and Souji always won. At first it had just been to see who got tipsy first, but the more they drank together, the further they pushed it. 

Tonight was no exception.

Yosuke had matched Souji, shot-for-shot, through an entire bottle of sake and half a bottle of plum wine, and though Souji was making them stop periodically to drink water and eat snacks, Yosuke was still feeling the effects. He was well beyond tipsy, laying back on the floor and giggling. Souji, on the other hand, only had a blush and some hiccups to show for it - he was still calmly pouring shots with steady hands. Yosuke wanted to call it quits, but his pride was at stake, here. 

He took another shot.

Damn, this plum wine was good though. He just hoped he didn’t regret this in the morning. Speaking of regret, he had a hard time keeping himself from babbling about stupid things when he was drunk, and again tonight was no exception.

“I jus’ don’t get why they keep turnin’ me down, man,” he was complaining, after he put down the empty sake cup, flopping back onto his back with a sigh. “It’s not like I’m some kinda horrible gross troll to look at, and I think I’m pretty nice about it even when I get turned down?”

“What happened with that American exchange student...Maria, was her name?” Souji asked. He started to pour another shot, but put the bottle down and reached for a bottle of water instead, handing it over to Yosuke and grabbing another for himself. Yosuke briefly considered trying to drink it while laying down, but in the end he sat up and took a swig of it.

“Went on a few dates. She’s nice and all, and really cute, but like, there was something missing, I guess? We both decided to call it off,” he sighed. 

“What was missing?” Souji asked, and Yosuke frowned.

“Gimme another shot before I answer,” he requested, and Souji shrugged, pouring another shot of plum wine for both of them. They clinked their sake cups together and downed the wine. After a moment of trying talk himself out of it, Yosuke’s mouth apparently decided to open without his permission, because he said, “I dunno man. S’ like...we’ve got a connection, you and me, right? And I wasn’t feeling anything like that with Maria.”

“Oh?” Souji asked. “Is that what you’re looking for in a date?” Yosuke frowned in response.

“Gonna need more wine to answer that,” he slurred. Souji sighed, but poured more shots.

“We’re almost done with the bottle...are you going to be okay?” Souji asked, and Yosuke flopped onto his back in response.

“S’ really stupid,” Yosuke slurred, totally avoiding Souji’s question. “I thought I just wanted someone hot to go out with, yanno? But eventually I figured out that I just want what I have with you but, like, with a girl.” Souji laughed in response, and Yosuke frowned. “Toldya it was stupid.”   


“It’s not stupid,” Souji assured him. “Just...hm. You already have a bond like that with me, so why look for a girl to replace me?” 

“Huh?” Yosuke asked, staring up at Souji like he’d grown a second head. “Cuz I can’t, like, make out with you and stuff, geez Souji.”

“Why not?” Souji asked. Yosuke sat up, frowning. 

“You’re a guy,” he pointed out, and Souji shrugged.

“And?” Souji challenged. Yosuke blushed, averting his eyes. He huffed out a sigh.

“ _ I’m _ a guy,” he replied. Souji grinned.

“Yosuke, you know I’m bi. I don’t care that you’re a guy, but...well, if  _ you _ care that  _ I’m _ a guy and that’s a deal-breaker, there’s nothing we can do about that, right?” Souji answered. Yosuke bit his lip. He was definitely not sober enough to be having this conversation but, then again, he probably would have never let this conversation get to this point if he  _ was _ sober. Ugh. 

“I guess...I dunno. I could - we could try it, but I’m pretty sure I’ll hate it, and then you’ll be disappointed in me,” Yosuke stuttered out. Souji’s eyes lit up in response.

“One date,” he replied. When Yosuke gave him a confused look, he elaborated. “Let’s go out on one date. A movie, dinner, dessert, a goodnight kiss, the works - and if you hate it after that, you’ll have your answer. How about it, Partner?”

“Gonna need more alcohol to answer that,” Yosuke said, despite knowing it was a bad idea. Souji held up the bottle - there was a little over a fourth of it left. He smirked at Yosuke, then took a long drink straight from the bottle, draining half of the wine, and handed it over to Yosuke. Yosuke reached out and took the bottle, hesitantly. He could just pour the wine into a cup and drink it that way, and he damn well knew he could, and  _ Souji _ damn well knew he could, too. That wasn’t what this was about. If he drank straight from the bottle, it would be an indirect kiss.

He kind of wanted that. He kind of wanted a more direct kiss with Souji, too. The usual part of his brain that panicked about having thoughts like this was oddly quiet - probably the alcohol.

He took the drink, straight from the bottle, draining the rest of the wine. He could  _ feel _ that he was going to regret that in the morning, but for now he just shoved away that unpleasant thought, and the other related unpleasant thoughts about how he was probably definitely making a mistake. He put the bottle down between them and leveled a heated stare at Souji.

“One date,” he slurred. “And by the way, we totally tied. I drank as much alcohol as you did.”

“Ah, but can you even walk to your bed like that?” Souji challenged. Yosuke looked over toward the door of his room, sitting slightly ajar. It wasn’t like it was very far, but there was  _ furniture _ in the way. 

“If I can, will you admit that I won?” he asked, slowly making to stand up. Souji chuckled.

“Just accept that I’m better at holding my alcohol,” he said. Yosuke managed to get to his feet, but immediately swayed and had to grab onto the nearby sofa. Souji gave a dramatic sigh and got to his feet, grabbing onto Yosuke’s upper arm to stabilize him. Yosuke begrudgingly accepted the help, leaning on Souji to make it the few feet over to his room. He flopped onto his bed with a groan, and Souji chuckled at him.

“Don’t forget about our date,” he said, patting him on the head. Yosuke sighed.

He woke up the next morning to a glass of water and a bottle of medicine on his bedside table. He groaned in appreciation and lifted the bottle, only to find a note tucked underneath it:

‘Meet me at the mall today after your class for our date! Don’t worry, I’m paying. xoxoxo, Souji’

“What the fuck,” Yosuke whispered, putting a hand over his face in response as he turned bright red. He’d  _ really _ been hoping that their conversation had just been a weird dream or a hallucination or something.

* * *

 

He was nursing his hangover through his morning class, the only class of the day, thankfully. It was still hell. He wanted to think that he’d never let himself get that drunk again...but he knew he would. By the time class let out and he headed over to the mall he’d managed to shake the hangover, and the headache was clearing up. Souji looked fine - probably didn’t even have a hangover, the bastard. In fact, as he got closer to Souji he realized that he didn’t just look fine, he looked downright  _ chipper _ . Excited, even. Yosuke glowered at him as he approached.

“I thought you might still have a headache,” Souji teased. “Want to call off the movie? The last thing you need is bright lights and loud noises.”

“What will we do instead?” Yosuke asked. 

“Well,” Souji answered, “There’s the Planetarium. It’s nice and quiet, and dark.”

“Sure,” Yosuke replied, because he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. The trip there wasn’t too bad, and true to Souji’s words it was nice and quiet and dark, and the show was pretty cool. By the time they left, Yosuke felt much better and his stomach was rumbling. They went to a nearby ramen shop for dinner, not the most romantic dinner ever, but the ramen was good. They got ice cream cones as they made their way back to their dorm, chatting about mundane things like their classes and what groceries they needed to get. It wasn’t until they got to the door of their little apartment that Yosuke even remembered that they were supposed to be on a date...because Souji put his hand over Yosuke’s to stop him from unlocking the door. 

“Hm?” he asked, blinking up at Souji.

“It’s not a date without a goodnight kiss,” he insisted, and Yosuke turned red.

“I-I-I thought you were kidding about that!” he sputtered. “And anyway, today barely counts as a date! We didn’t do anything differently from how we normally hang out!” Souji smiled.

“Yes, exactly,” he replied. “That’s why we need to have a goodnight kiss, otherwise how are you supposed to decide if you want to date me or not?”

He made a good point, Yosuke begrudgingly conceded. There was also something to the fact that they really hadn’t done much differently from a normal night out on the town between friends. He’d kind of refused to examine that too closely before, but what felt like just ‘normal’ hangouts between them could very well look like dates to an outside party. 

“Okay,” Yosuke finally said, through a dry throat. “But you gotta close your eyes, okay?” Souji closed his eyes immediately, without question, standing still and unassuming, hands at his sides and waiting. Yosuke took a deep breath to psyche himself up. He put a hand on one of Souji’s shoulders and leaned up, getting perilously close to Souji’s lips and...he couldn’t do it. It was  _ Souji _ . They’d been best friends since high school. They were roommates. He couldn’t just...just  _ kiss Souji _ , could he?

But Souji was still standing there, eyes closed, looking cool as a cucumber. Or maybe not, because he kept darting his tongue out to wet his lips, and one of his hands was rolling the hem of his shirt between two fingers. He was nervous too, and for some reason noticing that was what gave Yosuke the confidence. He leaned up again and pressed their lips together.

Yosuke had never believed in that pervasive notion in pop culture that there’d be a ‘spark’ that you could feel when you kissed ‘the one’. Every kiss he’d ever had was just two people pressing their lips together, nothing special. Every...other kiss, anyway. He was almost mad. Souji had been right there beside him for  _ years _ , and if he’d known it would be like  _ this _ to kiss him he would have done it way sooner, homophobia be damned.

They were both blushing when Yosuke pulled away, and Souji looked positively thrilled, opening his eyes and grinning down at him. 

“Did...did you feel that?” Yosuke asked, stupidly, and he could have punched himself for it. Souji nodded, his grin getting wider.

“In movies they always say that kissing a special person would feel like fireworks, but I never thought that could actually be true,” Souji commented. Yosuke went completely red, and just turned to unlock the door instead of answering. They stepped inside, turning on the lights and shutting the door behind them, and when Yosuke turned back to Souji he was sure he had a pathetic, vulnerable look on his face.

“I…” Yosuke started, but quickly realized he had no idea what to say. So he just pushed Souji back against the door and kissed him again, a much shorter kiss than the last one. When he pulled back and caught Souji’s questioning look, he blushed again. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke the first time.”

“And…?” Souji questioned.

“It wasn’t,” Yosuke answered, leaning in for another kiss. When he didn’t pull away immediately, Souji reached up and pushed his hand into Yosuke’s hair, cradling the back of his head and kissing him harder. He made a sound into the kiss that he would swear up and down was not a whimper, and Souji apparently took that as a good sign, his other arm wrapping around Yosuke’s waist and pulling them closer together. When Yosuke finally pulled back, it was out of necessity to breathe and not because he wanted to stop kissing Souji. Now that he knew that he could, he never  _ wanted _ to stop kissing Souji.

“So, are we dating now?” Souji asked, once he’d caught his breath. “Are we both useless bisexuals?”

“I guess,” Yosuke huffed, but he couldn’t help smiling despite his harsh tone. 


	12. Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before he could talk himself out of it, he was hopping into the back of the truck and flinging himself at the TV, not even stopping at his friends’ horrified shouts for him to stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated posting this one as a separate stand-alone fic, as it's so different from most of the other prompts (and much longer, too). It's a slight canon divergence where Yosuke goes into the TV in the back of Namatame's delivery truck, in order to save Nanako. Also, it turns out Yosuke himself has a dungeon, too. Honestly, I could have written this to be a much longer, multi-chaptered fic, but I'm ultimately okay with how it turned out.

When he saw the TV in the back of that truck, Yosuke was, in a word, horrified. What kind of a sick fucking person was Namatame, to kidnap a child, put her in so much danger in the real world and then mercilessly throw her into the TV world? He heard the others telling Souji that it was too dangerous to go into the TV from here, since they didn’t know where it would lead. He heard that, and he decided he didn’t care. Namatame needed to fucking pay, and someone needed to save Nanako.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he was hopping into the back of the truck and flinging himself at the TV, not even stopping at his friends’ horrified shouts for him to stop. He soon found himself surrounded by the usual TV world fog, but fortunately he had a habit of carrying his glasses with him at all times. They all did, really. If they could have gotten away with it they would have carried weapons with them too, but those are quite a bit harder to hide and not to mention, pretty illegal. But Yosuke wasn’t concerned - he had Susanoo, after all. He’d be fine, as long as he didn’t go picking fights with any really tough Shadows. 

Although, speaking of picking fights --

After just a minute or so of walking, Yosuke found himself at what looked like a large, brightly lit gate of some kind. He didn’t take the time to examine it too closely, because just inside the gate he spotted two figures, one taller and the other shorter and looking to be struggling against being dragged away by the taller figure. He broke out into a sprint, the fog seeming to peel away from his vision thanks to the glasses, and he could clearly see that it was that bastard Namatame trying to drag Nanako further into the structure. 

“Stop it! I don’t want to go with you! Take me back home!” Nanako was insisting, struggling with all her might against Namatame. The older man didn’t get the chance to respond, because Yosuke somehow managed to run straight up to him without the sound of his footsteps alerting him, and he basically slammed straight into him, forcing him to let go of Nanako and stumble a few steps back. Yosuke immediately put himself between him and Nanako, hands up in a fighting stance. He didn’t have his knives, and Namatame was taller and bigger than he was, but like hell was he going to let him lay another finger on her. 

“Y-Yosuke?” Nanako asked, timidly. 

“Yeah, don’t worry Nanako-chan, I’m gonna get you out of here,” he replied. Namatame finally caught his footing, glaring over at him

“Get out of my way, brat! I need to save her!” he exclaimed.

“What the hell are you talking about, ‘saving’? You won’t be saving anyone by dragging them into the TV world, you idiot!” Yosuke barked in response. 

“I saved the others, it’s the only way! Now go away!” Namatame replied. He had a desperate, crazed look in his eyes, and Yosuke was very, very glad that he could call on Susanoo if he needed to. He was so unnerved that he almost wanted to. 

“Get ready to run, Nanako-chan,” Yosuke whispered, not taking his eyes off of Namatame in case he decided to make a run at them. Nanako made a sobbing noise in response.

“I can’t, my legs feel weird,” she replied, and Yosuke cursed under his breath. He’d have to carry her, then, which meant he’d need to do something to distract Namatame. Just as he was about to call out Susanoo, Namatame continued.

“I’ll save you too. I can save you all! But I have to save her first, the TV told me to,” the former politician explained.

“And I’m telling you, this place is full of dangerous monsters! You wouldn’t be saving her at all, you’d be killing her!” Yosuke yelled. Nanako gave a little cough, and he felt her clutch at one of his arms. Shit. If people stayed in the fog for too long they got sick, and poor Nanako was so small and already prone to getting sick, wasn’t she? He needed to get her out sooner rather than later. As much as he wanted to punch Namatame in the face for all of this, he knew his priorities. 

“Give me the girl!” Namatame snarled. “Let me do what the TV told me to do!”

“I’m done talking to you,” Yosuke replied. “Come, Susanoo!” He didn’t summon the Persona with his usual theatrics, mainly because he didn’t have his kunai to slash at his tarot card with, but also because the instant Susanoo appeared, he crouched down and told Nanako to jump on his back. She did so, albeit weakly, but as soon as he felt her arms around his neck he stood back up and took off in a sprint, grabbing her legs to keep her secure as he ran. He didn’t even look back to see what Susanoo was doing, just ran away from the weird gate structure as quickly as possible, disappearing into the fog. 

Yosuke just ran as fast as he could until his legs and lungs started to protest. Surprisingly, Nanako on his back wasn’t weighing him down nearly as much as he would have expected - she weighed like, nothing, which he would have thought was impossible considering she got to eat Souji’s cooking all the time. 

“Yosuke, where are we going?” Nanako finally asked, once Yosuke stopped to catch his breath. Susanoo helpfully informed him that Namatame was not pursuing them, but the Persona had no idea where they were. Yosuke looked around, but all he could see were the weird scaffolding-like structures in the fog. 

“The exit, hopefully,” he replied. 

As soon as he stood back up, Nanako started to cough, one delicate little cough turning into a series of horrible, wracking coughs.

“Are you alright, Nanako-chan?” Yosuke asked, when she finally stopped. 

“N-no,” she wheezed. “It’s hard to breathe…”

Thinking fast, Yosuke reached up and pulled the glasses off of his face. His entire field of vision immediately went foggy, but that was fine. 

“Here, put these on. They’ll help you breathe, trust me,” he said. 

“Okay,” she croaked, unwrapping one hand from around his neck to take the glasses from him, then replacing the arm a second later. He could hear her breathing level out as the effect of the glasses was almost instantaneous, thank god. “They really  _ do _ help,” she marveled, after a minute. “And...I can see better! Where did you get these?”

“They were a gift from Teddie, so don’t lose them, alright?” Yosuke instructed. “And I can’t see through the fog now, so you’ll have to look for me, okay? Tell me right away if you see any buildings or people, or anything that looks like a weird black blob.”

“Okay!” Nanako replied. Yosuke shifted her on his back so that she was a bit better supported, and started forward. They were walking for what felt like forever before Nanako spoke up again.

“I think I hear something,” she said. Yosuke made an effort to listen, but couldn’t hear anything. Did the glasses help with hearing?

“What is it?” he asked. Nanako was quiet for a few seconds, listening.

“It sounds like the Junes music!” she announced. 

“Junes?” Yosuke parroted, feeling a sense of dread wash over him. What would a TV world version of Junes be like? He almost didn’t want to find out, but...well, it could have been a part of the twisted shopping district that he and Souji had walked through the day they fought Yosuke’s Shadow. If that was the case, he might be able to find his way out of the TV world after all.

“Yeah, it is!” Nanako cried, happily. “It’s coming from that way!” She pointed off to the right, so Yosuke changed directions, picking up his pace and following the music that only Nanako could hear. If he wasn’t so used to the general weirdness of the world, Yosuke would be a lot more worried. A lot. 

Eventually, a very big, very familiar building loomed out of the fog, a building that even Yosuke could see. The familiar jingle was playing out of seemingly nowhere, making everything about five hundred times more unnerving. 

“This isn’t Junes, is it?” Nanako asked, a tinge of fear in her voice.

“Not really. We probably shouldn’t go in-” Yosuke answered, but stopped abruptly when he saw a figure approach the doors from the inside. A very familiar figure. 

“Surprised to see me again? I know I am,” Yosuke’s Shadow remarked, golden eyes sparking with amusement. Yosuke took a step back, panicked.

“Who is that, Yosuke?” Nanako asked, and she was obviously terrified. 

“I’m this guy’s True Self,” the Shadow responded, gesturing at Yosuke.

“No way, you can’t be,” Yosuke denied. “I can still feel my connection to Susanoo. Who are you, really?”

Instead of answering, the Shadow seemed to flicker, turning into Susanoo and then back.

“There’s your answer,” the Shadow said.

“But-but that’s-” Yosuke started to refute, but the Shadow -- Susanoo -- cut him off with a chuckle.

“Impossible, right? Oh no, it’s very possible. You may have accepted me before, but that was a long time ago. Things have changed since then, haven’t they Yosuke?” Susanoo asked. Yosuke felt himself go pale. This was bad. There was no way he could fight off his Shadow, with or without Nanako on his back. 

“What do you want?” Yosuke asked, praying that he could resolve this without a confrontation.

“What else would I want? I want you to accept the things that you’re trying too hard to deny,” Susanoo answered. Yosuke felt himself start to sweat. There was only one thing Susanoo could possibly be talking about - and if he spilled the beans here, in front of Nanako, there was no way Souji wouldn’t find out. 

As if on cue, Nanako coughed. It wasn’t nearly as bad as before, but it was still alarming, considering she was wearing Yosuke’s glasses. Susanoo frowned, a concerned look coming to his face as well. 

“Come inside. There is no fog in here. Don’t worry - no matter what, I won’t hurt Nanako,” the Shadow said. Yosuke hesitated, but Nanako started to cough again. “I just want to talk. You’ve shown me that you have the strength to wield me as your Persona. Your goals are my goals.”

“...okay,” Yosuke finally relented, because as strong of a front as he was putting up, the fog was starting to affect him too. Susanoo turned on his heels and walked back through the sliding glass doors, and Yosuke nervously followed. 

The interior was just like Junes, except for the fact that all of the posters advertising various products had been replaced with pictures. Pictures of people that Yosuke was pretty familiar with. 

“Wh-what’s going on here?” he found himself asking, as he trailed behind Susanoo. The Shadow led them up the stairs and into the produce section. 

“This place was created when you first came to our world,” Susanoo explained. “Something similar happened for Satonaka, too. This would have been your personal ‘dungeon’, had you not faced me in Saki-sempai’s dungeon instead.” The Shadow paused at an endcap conveniently piled with blankets, grabbing one before he continued on his way. 

“What’s he talking about?” Nanako leaned over to whisper. He’d almost forgotten about her on his back, he’d been so focused on the threat posed by his Shadow. 

“Uhhh...it’s like...how do I put this? We’re in another world, and when you first come to this world it builds a building based on what’s in your heart,” Yosuke attempted. Nanako made a noise of understanding.

“So that wasn’t really heaven back there, where you saved me from that bad guy?” she asked. Yosuke struggled to think back to what the place had looked like, but all he remembered was that it was tall and bright.

“No, I guess that was what was in your heart, or maybe in Namatame’s…?” he hazarded.

“So you really like Junes then?” she asked, and the excitement in her voice was both adorable and incredibly relieving to hear. 

“Uh…” Yosuke started. Susanoo stopped and turned back toward them, starting to add something, but Yosuke interjected. “Don’t answer that.” He sighed, and Susanoo just shrugged, turning back around and moving forward again. “It’s...Junes is a big part of my life.”

“Oh,” Nanako replied, and she sounded a little disappointed. Desperate to change the subject, Yosuke cast around for another topic, before deciding to ask about what had potentially been her ‘dungeon’.

“So, why did you think that place back there was heaven, Nanako-chan?” he asked. 

“When I get scared, I think about Mom,” Nanako replied, and her voice sounded so small and sad. “I want to see her again.”

“Oh!” Yosuke gasped, stopping right in his tracks. “S-sorry, Nanako! I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“It’s alright,” she replied. “You saved me from that bad guy after all.” Yosuke breathed a sigh of relief, and the three of them continued on. As they got closer to the second set of stairs, the pictures became more frequent. Just like Yosuke thought, they were people that had been important to him. Friends and classmates from his old school, and even some teachers, were starting to appear.

“So...the pictures…” Yosuke commented, though he was fairly sure he knew what Susanoo was going to say. The Shadow said nothing, but glanced over his shoulder at Yosuke to acknowledge that he had at least heard him. In any case, Yosuke got his answer when they passed a large corkboard on the wall, which would have been filled with fliers and posters and other advertisements in the real world. This one was entirely full of pictures of Saki. 

“You get it, right?” Susanoo asked, turning his golden eyes on Yosuke. Yosuke nodded.

“It’s people that are important to me,” he answered, a sick feeling in his stomach. “So, I’m guessing the electronics section…” 

“Why ask what you already know?” Susanoo replied, heading for the stairs. Yosuke had no choice but to follow him. 

The electronics section was…about what Yosuke was expecting, but it was still a little horrifying. Every single screen in the area, and all of the posters on the walls, had all been replaced with pictures of Souji. All Souji, from different angles, in different places, in different outfits. They were all the moments that Yosuke remembered seeing Souji in a different light, or noticing a new thing he liked about his Partner. In some of the images he was with Nanako, or Dojima, or someone else from the Investigation Team...but everywhere he looked, he was faced with Souji. Smiling Souji, pensive Souji, relaxed Souji...just Souji.

Being confronted about his feelings like  _ this _ made his stomach turn. It actually made him forget that he was still carrying Nanako, until she spoke up.

“You really care about Big Bro,” Nanako said, sounding awed. Yosuke felt his cheeks go red. He couldn’t deny it, when literally everywhere he looked he could see Souji. Even the floor, which was reflecting the images from the TVs. He looked for the big TV, the one they used to enter and exit the TV world usually, and found that it was taken up with a group shot of sorts, of all of the Investigation Team and Nanako. Yosuke himself wasn’t present, but that was to be expected - these were all from his perspective, he was realizing. 

“It’s time we had our chat,” Susanoo said. His voice was soft and calm, almost disarming. Yosuke wanted to scream. The Shadow walked over to one of the massage chairs that were tucked away in a corner of the electronics section, draping the blanket he’d picked up over the chair. “Nanako can rest here.” Yosuke didn’t like the idea of putting Nanako down, but his arms and legs and back were really starting to hurt. Susanoo would keep his promise, he was sure of that. And if this Junes wasn’t connected to Saki’s twisted shopping district after all, they wouldn’t be able to make their way out of the TV that easily even if they could escape. He found his eyes drifting over to the large TV, and Susanoo chuckled.

“Think about escaping? Sorry, but that TV is a fake,” he said. To demonstrate, he pushed a nearby TV over, revealing that it was just a cardboard stand. 

“...huh,” Yosuke replied. He sighed. The smartest thing to do in this situation was to wait here - Rise would be able to find them with Kanzeon, for sure. He just had to wait until then. The air was clean here, and they had access to food and blankets. All he needed to do was talk to Susanoo. That was going to be the hard part, but he had to take this one step at a time. He walked over to the chair and crouched beside it, letting Nanako climb down off of his back and sit in the chair. She sat down, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around herself. 

“You get some rest, okay Nanako-chan? I’ll be right here,” he said, and she nodded. He stood up, stretching out his arm muscles, which gave a hearty protest after staying locked around Nanako’s legs for so long. He looked over to Susanoo, who only nodded at him in response. Just as he started to take a step toward the Shadow, he felt Nanako grab at one of his sleeves. 

“Hm?” he asked, turning back to look at her.

“Um,” she started, looking a little shy. “Big Bro told me not to tell you this, but you’re really important to him too. He says he really likes you.”

And just like that, Yosuke was rendered totally speechless. His face went totally red, and Susanoo started laughing behind him. 

“She’s doing my work for me, it seems,” Susanoo cackled, and Yosuke just put his face in his hands with a groan. Nanako made a confused noise.

“You like Big Bro, don’t you Yosuke?” she asked. All Yosuke could do was nod at first, finally mustering up the courage to move his hands and look down at her. 

“Y-yeah I do, Nanako-chan. Um, can you maybe not tell him about all this?” he asked, and she made a face. 

“I don’t like keeping secrets,” she pouted. “And I wasn’t supposed to tell you that Big Bro likes you!”

“It’s just,” he started to argue. “I...he’s my best friend, Nanako-chan. I don’t want anything to be weird.”

“Why would it be weird?” she asked. Susanoo just kept laughing behind them, and Yosuke was mortified. 

“W-we’re both guys,” he started to explain. 

“Oh! That’s...what do you call it...a bromance!” she exclaimed, with a big smile. Yosuke went completely still, mouth open, and he honestly couldn’t decide what to respond to first - the fact that she knew the word ‘bromance’, or the fact that he was actually having this discussion with her in the first place. 

“It seems that Yosuke.exe has stopped working,” Susanoo quipped. Yosuke jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder, turning to find that Susanoo had given up on trying to get Yosuke to move away from Nanako, and had instead come to stand beside them. Nanako was frowning.

“I don’t get it!” she declared. “Big Bro likes you and you like Big Bro, so what’s wrong?”

“He’s afraid,” Susanoo started, cutting off the denial that Yosuke was about to spout. Irritatingly, the Shadow wrapped an arm around one of Yosuke’s shoulders, pulling them together. “Some people don’t like it when two boys love each-other.”

“L-love?!” Yosuke squawked. Nanako gasped, sitting up completely in the chair.

“You love Big Bro?” she asked, and Yosuke just couldn’t lie to her adorable, innocent face. 

“I-in a way,” he deflected instead, pushing Susanoo’s arm off of his shoulder and crossing his arms with a huff. Susanoo made a ‘tsk’ sound.

“You know what denying your feelings gets you in this world, right?” he asked, and Yosuke groaned. 

“Fine, fine, I love Souji. Happy?” he asked, trying to pretend his face wasn’t entirely red. Nanako clapped and cheered in response, and Susanoo turned to him. The Shadow was starting to flicker back into his Persona form.

“There, was that so hard?” he asked, before he turned into Susanoo fully and disappeared, leaving behind the familiar tarot card until it, too, faded away. Yosuke felt something sort of click back into place, and guessed it was Susanoo settling back into his subconscious, waiting to be summoned again. He let out a sigh of relief. He turned back to Nanako, who was grinning up at him.

“Big Bro is gonna be so happy!” she said, and Yosuke started to feel himself panic.

“Please don’t tell him, Nanako-chan,” he said. She frowned, but he kept talking before she could berate him. “I want him to hear it from me first, okay? I promise I’ll tell him, but not right away.”

“...okay,” she finally relented. 

“Good. Now, why don’t we go down to the first floor to wait?” he asked, reaching out for her hand. She stood up, still keeping the blanket tucked around her.

“Wait?” she asked.

“Yeah. Souji will get here soon. Rise-chan has a really special Persona that will let her find us in no time,” Yosuke explained, as they headed for the stairs down. 

True to form, Souji came running through the doors about twenty minutes later, the rest of the IT hot on his heels. Yosuke and Nanako had been camped out on one of the benches in the lobby, solving a book of crossword puzzles that they’d found in the grocery section. 

“Big Bro!” Nanako cried, jumping up and running to him. He scooped her up and gave her a big hug. Yosuke couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, but Souji sounded incredibly relieved. He calmly put down the book and stood, making his way over to where the rest of the group had crowded around Souji and Nanako.

“What, nobody’s worried about me?” he asked, a joking lilt to his voice. Without even putting down Nanako, Souji all but lunged at him and dragged him into a hug too, Nanako having to wrap an arm around Yosuke’s neck to accommodate him. He soon found himself the center of a big group hug, Souji gasping about how worried he’d been about the both of them and how proud he was that Yosuke was able to save Nanako. When they all broke apart and Souji started to demand details about what happened, Yosuke held up a hand, palm out, to stall him.

“Can we talk about this on the way back to the real world? I have no idea what time it is, but I’m sure Nanako-chan needs some sleep, and I know I do,” he said. Souji just nodded, dumbfounded. He took Nanako-chan’s hand, and apparently he finally noticed that she was wearing Yosuke’s glasses.

“You gave her your glasses?” he asked, as they started walking. Yosuke nodded.

“I’ve got a killer headache, but she needs them to breathe in here, y’know?” he asked. Souji nodded, looking down at Nanako and back up at Yosuke. 

“Thank you,” he said, and Yosuke shrugged it off.

“Any of us would’ve done the same, Partner,” he replied. Souji went silent, looking down at Nanako as Rise led the way back to their usual exit. Yosuke found himself staring at the side of Souji’s face, as he was just now realizing he did a  _ lot _ . And then he remembered that Nanako had said that Souji  _ liked him _ , and he realized that he was walking beside someone that he had a big, stupid crush on that  _ liked him back _ , and he started to get flustered. 

“Uhhh so, turns out that I have a dungeon and it’s Junes,” he blurted out, desperate to not have to keep thinking about his big stupid reciprocated crush on Souji. 

“Really? I thought it was funny that we found you in a Junes, come to think of it,” Chie teased, and he rolled his eyes.

“According to Susanoo,  _ you _ have a dungeon somewhere in here too, Satonaka,” he replied, and she gasped.

“Really? Huh. Wonder what it is,” she replied. 

“Prolly Aiya’s, since all you’ve got on the brain is steak,” Yosuke goaded.

“Hey!” she protested, and Nanako giggled. 

“So, what did you find in there, Yosuke-sempai?” Naoto asked.

“I had a nice long chat with Susanoo. He showed up looking like my Shadow, though,” Yosuke replied, and Naoto lifted an eyebrow.

“Really?” Souji asked. Then, as if he couldn’t help himself, he asked “What did you talk about?”

“Let’s not discuss that right now,” Yosuke replied, immediately, urgently. Souji blinked at him in response.

“Oh man, whatever it was must have been juicy!” Chie chuckled. “You saw, right Nanako-chan? Will you tell us?”

“Nope! Yosuke made promise not to tell,” she replied. Then she looked up at Yosuke. 

“I know, I know, I remember. I’ll keep my promise,” he said, and she nodded, apparently satisfied. Everyone else spent the entire walk back to the entrance trying unsuccessfully to get Nanako to tell them what Yosuke’s Shadow had said. Souji kept looking between Nanako and Yosuke, looking pensive but relieved. In the lobby of Junes, the  _ real _ Junes, everybody made plans to meet up the next day at the hospital. Souji informed Nanako that her father was in the hospital but doing fine, to her obvious relief. Everybody went their separate ways, except for Yosuke. Mainly because Nanako insistently grabbed his hand and would not let go until he made it clear that he was going to walk home with the two of them. Souji chuckled.

“So I’m guessing that your Shadow had something to say about me?” he asked, and there was a little bit of fear in his voice. Yosuke sighed.

“Nothing bad,” he reassured him, and Souji nodded. Nanako giggled, but wouldn’t say a word when Souji asked her what was so funny. Yosuke died a little, and considered literally running away, but he didn’t want to disappoint Nanako.

“We still haven’t found Namatame,” Souji filled him in. “When we went in to rescue the two of you, Rise said she could feel a third person somewhere in the TV world, so that’s probably him.”

“Yeah,” Yosuke agreed. The Dojima house was in sight, and Yosuke was starting to low-key panic. “Oh, right, what about my parents? We were gone for a whole night, right?”

“They called the house. I told them that you were staying over to study, and that you were in the shower and couldn’t answer. Those drama lessons are starting to pay off, I’d say,” he joked, and Yosuke nodded, relieved. “Teddie told them the same thing when he went home.”

“Good,” Yosuke replied. They were on the front steps now, and Souji was pulling out his keys to unlock the house. If he ran now, he could still escape without having to tell Souji his feelings.

Nanako grabbed his hand and dragged him inside.

“I’ll go run the bath, Big Bro! You need to talk to Yosuke, okay?” she called, slipping out of her shoes and making a beeline for the bathroom, and Yosuke was honestly impressed with how cunning she could be. Souji looked at him. He looked at Souji.

“...so?” Souji asked, after a minute. Yosuke could feel himself sweating.

Here goes.

“I...um. My Shadow....Susanoo, um…” Yosuke stammered, having to stop to take a deep breath. Souji waited patiently for him to continue. “Susanoo, he...I...argh! Partner, do me a favor and close your eyes, okay?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Souji replied, dutifully closing his eyes. Yosuke sighed, approaching Souji and trying to pretend he wasn’t trembling. He was sure of his feelings, though, and Nanako had told him that Souji liked him too -- so why was he so nervous? Oh, right. He was scared that even though they both wanted this, he was going to screw everything up anyway. He suddenly felt something in the back of his mind, and got the sense that Susanoo was reprimanding him. Right. He promised both Susanoo and Nanako that he’d tell Souji how he felt. 

He closed the distance between them, eyes flicking up to make sure that Souji’s eyes were still closed. Then he leaned up and grabbed Souji’s shoulders, pulling him down and leaning up and pressing their mouths together. Souji’s eyes flew open and he made a surprised noise, but didn’t pull away, arms going around Yosuke’s waist and pulling him closer. Yosuke couldn’t help it when his eyes fluttered shut, the kiss morphing from an unsure, stilted thing to warm and affectionate as they kissed. 

“Yosuke…?” Souji asked, when they finally pulled away from each-other. Yosuke was bright red, and panting a little to catch his breath. He let the adrenaline coursing through his veins guide him, reaching out with both hands to take one of Souji’s and meeting his eyes, a determined look on his face.

“Partner, I love you,” he admitted. Souji smiled, and the wave of warmth and joy that washed over Yosuke in response was addictive. “That’s what Susanoo confronted me about. I know you’ll be going home in the spring and...and we’re both guys and I’ve been really shitty about this stuff, but will you go out with me?”

“Of course,” Souji replied, pulling Yosuke into a hug. “I... I love you too, Yosuke.” 

When Nanako finally emerged from the bath, she poked her head into the living room to see the two of them sitting side-by-side at the kotatsu, watching the TV. They both looked up when she came in.

“Did you tell him yet?” she asked Yosuke, excited, and Yosuke chuckled. 

“I promised, didn’t I?” he answered. Souji lifted their hands, which were laced together, above the table so that Nanako could see. She squealed in happiness and ran to them, pulling them both into a big hug. 


	13. Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The precise moment that Souji Seta realized that he liked Yosuke Hanamura was while they were at the beach.

The precise moment that Souji Seta realized that he liked Yosuke Hanamura was while they were at the beach. One moment, the two of them were best friends, and Yosuke was just a silly guy that tried too hard to impress girls. Then Souji looked at him, and the sunlight hit him just right. The light shone through his auburn hair, his lightly tanned skin seemed to glow, the sunlight poured over the adorable splash of freckles across his cheeks and shoulders, his slender but toned body...and the lazy but geniune smile he was wearing almost seemed to shine brighter than the sun, as cliche as that sounded even in Souji’s head. All Souji could think was, “oh no.”

“Sempai? Are you okay?” Rise’s voice startled him out of his thoughts, and he realized with a start that he’d been staring with his mouth slightly open, for how long he wasn’t sure. 

“Yeah…, uh, I just...yeah,” Souji replied, and he could have smacked himself over how dumb that sounded. 

“Eh? What’s wrong, Partner, did the sun fry your brains?” Yosuke asked and, speak of the devil, he had somehow appeared next to Souji and Rise, leaning over to examine Souji’s face, which Souji was just now realizing was turning bright red.

_ What was he supposed to do with these feelings?! _

“Y...yeah,” Souji managed to reply, and Yosuke got that mischievous grin that he always got when he was scheming. 

“Well then, you need to cool off, right?” he asked, and abruptly grabbed one of Souji’s arms and dragged him toward the ocean.

“Yosuke-sempai!” Rise protested, but all Souji could do was let Yosuke drag him into the ocean until a wave crashed over both of them. When they emerged from the wave Yosuke was laughing, and Souji couldn’t help joining. Then he splashed Yosuke because, newfound feelings or not, he needed payback now. He’d sort his feelings out later, but for now he was content to try to dunk Yosuke underwater.


	14. Sports

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh man, I haven’t been ice skating in years!” Yosuke said with a huge grin, and that was when Souji knew that his fate was sealed.

“Oh man, I haven’t been ice skating in years!” Yosuke said with a huge grin, and that was when Souji knew that his fate was sealed. They were all sitting around the living room of the Dojima household, spending a lazy Sunday afternoon hanging out and trying to make plans for the coming weeks.  Nanako jumped to her feet and ran to where Souji was sitting at the kotatsu, grabbing one of his shoulders and asking, “Can I go too, Big Bro?”

He wanted to respond with something like ‘we haven’t even decided to go yet’ or ‘it’s dangerous, so you’ll have to ask Dojima-san’, but he couldn’t say no to Nanako. He’d never be able to say no to Nanako.

“Sure,” he replied, able to keep the nervousness out of his voice only because of months of training with the drama club. “Just make sure it’s okay with Dojima-san, okay?”

“Yaaaay!” she cheered, running off to go do just that. Everyone else started murmuring excitedly, talking about how they used to go when they were kids, seeing what days everyone was free to go...Rise even started talking excitedly about going to buy a pair of skates for herself. Everyone was excited...except for Souji. But because Souji was normally quiet anyway, nobody really noticed. In the end they decided to go the following Saturday after school let out. The rink was in Okina, set up outside for the winter. It was sure to be packed. Packed full of people that could actually skate, and Souji was sure he was going to spend the entire time clinging to the walls, miserable. But he didn’t want to put a damper on his friends’ plans, and he didn’t want to disappoint Nanako. 

* * *

 

Somehow, Nanako got it into her head that Souji was really good at ice skating. She’d apparently been talking to her friends about how she was going to the rink on Saturday, and when one of them asked if she could skate, she responded with “Big Bro will teach me! He’s a really good ice skater!”

He wanted to tell her the truth. He really, really wanted to tell her the truth, but she was smiling up at him with a big, innocent expression on her face. And then Dojima-san said, “I’m sure he is, Nanako. Souji will take good care of you at the rink...won’t he?” And oh man, Dojima-san looked scary. 

“Of course!” Souji replied, and Dojima nodded, and the conversation went back to safer topics.

As soon as dinner was over, he called Yosuke in a panic.

He hadn’t really given any thought to who he was going to call for help, actually. He knew Rise was probably the  _ best _ choice as she had apparently taken actual skating lessons as a kid, but she wasn’t necessarily the  _ safest  _ choice - she’d think it was a date, of course. Yosuke was absolutely the safest choice. He wouldn’t tease Souji about this - well, not much anyway - and he had sounded like he knew what he was doing. 

“Hey Partner!” Yosuke greeted as he answered the phone.

“Yosuke, I need your help,” Souji answered, trying not to let his panic bleed through into his voice.

“What’s wrong?” Yosuke asked, immediately on high alert. “Is it Nanako?”

“Everything is fine, don’t worry,” Souji replied, with a little smile. The fact that all of his friends cared so much about Nanako honestly always warmed his heart. “I just...I need you to teach me how to ice skate before Saturday.”

“...huh?” Yosuke replied. Souji could feel his cheeks turning red, but he barreled on through the conversation. 

“Nanako thinks I’m really good at ice skating, but I’m actually bad. Really, really bad. The last time I tried it, I couldn’t even bring myself to let go of the wall,”  he admitted.

“...huh,” was Yosuke’s response. “I...I honestly thought you were really good at it. You’re good at everything else.”

“Gotta have an Achilles heel somewhere,” Souji sighed in response. “Look, I don’t want to let her down, so...I’ll pay for the extra admission and everything, but please help me?”

“Of course I will, Partner!” Yosuke exclaimed. Then, after a moment of Souji thanking every god that would listen that he had such a good best friend, he continued. “But I gotta ask, why me? I taught myself how to skate, but Rise took actual lessons, wouldn’t she be a better choice?”

“I can’t ask Rise,” Souji replied. “She’ll think it’s a date.”

“Ah,” Yosuke said. He sounded a little bitter, and Souji honestly hated it. But they’d already talked about this - Souji couldn’t help that Rise had a crush on him, he wasn’t interested in her, maybe Yosuke should try asking her out himself? But Yosuke had just grumbled something about not wanting to be anyone’s second choice.

“Uh, so, can we go to the rink after school tomorrow? If you aren’t working, that is,” Souji continued. 

“I’m free,” Yosuke confirmed, and Souji finally let himself sigh in relief. Everything was going to be fine - he was sure Yosuke could teach him. Even if they didn’t get it tomorrow, it was only Tuesday…

* * *

By the time Friday rolled around, Souji was really starting to panic.

They’d gone on Wednesday and, well, all they’d accomplished was getting Souji off of the wall. He could skate in a straight line and managed to turn a couple of times, but that was it. He couldn’t stop himself, he wobbled dangerously, and Yosuke was skating backwards and holding his hands for most of the time. They’d gone back on Thursday, too, and only because Yosuke had essentially begged his dad for the day off, citing it as an emergency. He could skate on his own and even do the turns now, but he’d fallen so. many. times. He was nowhere near good enough to teach Nanako to skate - he could barely even keep her from falling over, at this rate.

And so, Souji was doing the unthinkable. Five minutes into homeroom, he passed a note back to Yosuke that read, ‘Let’s skip classes for the day and practice skating.’ He knew Yosuke would do it, because when he’d skipped classes with Ai, Yosuke had said he was really jealous. 

“Dude,” Yosuke laughed, as soon as they were past the school gates. “I never thought I’d be skipping classes with Honors Student Souji Seta.”

“I’m doing this for Nanako,” Souji reminded him, voice stern, but Yosuke just laughed.

“Oh man, I’ll bet every girl in school would be jealous of me,” he continued, smirking over at Souji. “Probably some of the guys, too.”

“I’m not  _ that _ popular,” Souji reprimanded, rolling his eyes. 

“All the notes you get in your locker say otherwise,” Yosuke replied. “Anyway, you got a plan to make sure we don’t get kicked out of the rink? We can’t go in our uniforms.”

“I do. We just have to stop by my place first...I hope you don’t mind wearing some of my clothes for a while?” Souji asked. Yosuke just shrugged in response.

“Sure, whatever,” he replied, but if Souji wasn’t mistaking it, he sounded a little weird, and his cheeks were a little red. Huh. 

They showed up at the rink just before 11am, managed to fool the bored-looking college student that was manning the rink, and got right to work. They were the only ones there for a solid three hours, and that helped Souji tremendously. Even then they were only joined by one other person, a probably twenty-something girl that kept to herself in one corner of the little rink, practicing some spins and flips. 

They made great progress. Yosuke made them take a lot of breaks, which was a little jarring for Souji as that was normally his job. By the time the girl showed up, Yosuke had Souji skating backwards, albeit very awkwardly, while he pushed him around the rink. By late afternoon, Souji had gotten the hang of skating backwards enough that he could do it without Yosuke’s help, though he was still a little worried about turning. 

At Souji’s request, they went for a few more laps around the rink until Souji felt like he finally, finally got it. After he went around a curve and didn’t wobble even a little, he looked up at Yosuke with a big, grateful grin. He was going to say ‘thanks’, but the way Yosuke was looking at him caught him totally off-guard. He just looked so...warm, and, and affectionate. He’d never seen Yosuke giving anyone that kind of look before. Had he been looking at Souji liked that this whole time? Souji didn’t know, he’d been giving all of his attention to his feet and the rink, making sure he didn’t trip or bump into anyone or crash into the side of the rink. Now he couldn’t look away, heart pounding in his chest, thoughts whirling at about a thousand miles per hour, and-

“H-hey! Watch out!” Yosuke said, reaching out to him, and Souji realized that he’d done something weird with his feet and started to trip. Yosuke managed to grab his shoulders, but it was too late, so he just ended up going down with him. They ended up in a heap, skidding to a stop on the ice a few feet away, and Souji was thankful that he hadn’t taken off his sweater, electing to push the sleeves up to his elbows instead, because that cushioned a lot of the blow.

“Agh, man, geez, I’m sorry,” Yosuke sputtered, managing to plant his hands onto the ice after a little bit of struggling, pushing himself up and off of Souji. “You okay?” 

“I think so,” Souji replied, and then made the mistake of looking up and locking eyes with Yosuke. They both froze, and Souji swore that time ground down to a halt as they looked at each-other. Yosuke blushed, and Souji had never really noticed how  _ cute _ that was before, how cute  _ Yosuke _ was, actually, though he knew that the other boy would hate being called cute. He’d hate that Souji was having thoughts like this at all, in fact. He’d definitely hate that Souji kind of wanted Yosuke to kiss him...but even as he thought that, he saw Yosuke look down at his lips, then look back up bashfully, and holy shit he was leaning down, and-

“Are you two alright?” a voice asked, and it startled both of them so much that Yosuke flinched backwards and Souji sat up, knocking Yosuke completely off of him and onto his back. 

“Y-yes, ma’am, we’re fine, just a fall! Nothing broken!” Yosuke stammered, hands over his face. 

“Thank you for your concern,” Souji said, voice a little calmer than Yosuke’s, but not by much. She gave them both a scrutinizing look.

“I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything,” she said.

“Ahahaha, what? No, of course not!” Yosuke answered. She shrugged and skated away, and Yosuke managed to shuffle into a standing position, dusting off his pants before holding a hand out to Souji. Souji took it and allowed himself to pulled upright as well. “Uh, so...want to go again?”

He wanted to continue whatever had been about to happen, to be honest, but Souji just nodded. This time he kept his eyes on his feet and the rink, not risking looking up at Yosuke even once, and after they’d made several laps of the rink with no mishaps Souji decided to declare the day a success. By the time they were on the train headed back for Inaba it was already dark. They sat together at the back of the train car, blessedly alone, and they were both pretty exhausted.

“Um, hey, so...about what happened at the rink today,” Yosuke started, looking over at Souji. He was blushing again, and it was still really cute. Souji nodded at him to continue, but he looked away with a panicked expression. “Uh...never mind, it’s stupid.”

“What did you want to say?” Souji asked, shifting a little closer to Yosuke and putting a hand carefully on his shoulder. Yosuke shook his head, still not looking at him.

“Nah, man, don’t worry about it,” he replied. Souji frowned.

“No, really, what is it?” he prodded.

“I said forget it!” Yosuke finally exclaimed, looking over at him with an angry expression. Souji shuffled back, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender, and Yosuke deflated at the hurt look on his face. “...sorry. Just...never mind.” A few minutes of awkward silence went by, before Yosuke cleared his throat. “So, I’m sure Nanako’ll be thrilled at how good you can skate!”

“I hope so,” Souji replied, relieved that Yosuke didn’t seem to be mad anymore. “Thanks, Yosuke.”

“Sure, sure. I hope all that hard work was worth it. And hey, now I’m the only one that knows the dirty little secret of how bad you were at skating before!” he teased, elbowing Souji. Souji laughed in response. 

“You better take that with you to the grave,” he joked. 

Yeah, to the grave. Just like what he was going to have to do with these new feelings he was having for Yosuke. There was no way Yosuke liked him, right? Not after how badly he’d freaked out at Kanji in the bathhouse, or during the school camping trip. He’d just been misreading the signs all day, that was all. That had to be it. So he resolved to just forget all about this crush he was suddenly developing on his best friend. He could nip this in the bud right now, he was sure of it. Yep, he could do it.

Except that, when Yosuke flashed his usual big ‘good morning’ grin at him when they met up at the floodplains to walk to school together...all of the resolve he’d spent the entire night trying to build just...crumbled. 

“Yosuke,” he said, reaching out and grabbing the other boy’s elbow and prompting him to stop pushing his bike and turn to look at him, curious. 

“Yeah, what’s up, Partner?” he asked. Souji could feel his face heating up, just from having those caramel-brown eyes on him. He hated having crushes.  _ Hated it.  _ He didn’t even get them all that often. It was already January and he only had a couple more months of time in Inaba, and he’d thought for sure he was in the clear - he hadn’t even had a passing interest in any of his friends before. He had to get this out of the way, for his own sanity.

“I need to tell you something, alright? Please don’t freak out,” he said, and Yosuke gave a nervous laugh in response. 

“Eheheh, sounds serious Partner, you okay?” he asked. Souji shook his head. 

“Please just listen to me, okay? I…” he trailed off, with a sigh. He’d been staring down at the muddy ground below them, but he realized that he needed to be looking at Yosuke to say this, so he tightened his grip on Yosuke’s elbow a little and steeled himself, looking up to meet Yosuke’s worried look. “I know how you feel about this stuff, and I know you’re going to reject me, but I need to tell you that I...like you.”

For what felt like eons, Yosuke was completely quiet, staring at Souji with his mouth slightly open in surprise. Just as Souji started to feel like he’d made a terrible mistake, he felt Yosuke shake his elbow free of his grip, heard his bike clatter to the ground, and -- then he had thrown his arms around Souji’s shoulders and was hugging him, and laughing. And not his nervous laughter either, but joyful laughter. He was laughing so hard that he was shaking both of them, face buried in Souji’s shoulder, and all Souji could do was wrap his arms around Yosuke’s waist and hope that this was a  _ good _ thing. As it turned out, it was.

“I like you too,” he heard Yosuke say, and even though it was muffled from how he still had his head buried in Souji’s shoulder, he still heard it clearly. “Man, I...Souji, Partner, I really like you too.” Then he pulled back and looked Souji in the face. His cheeks were red, and his eyes were shining like he was about to cry, but he had that expression on his face that he’d had at the rink, all full of warmth and affection. “I just...I thought...I  _ never _ thought…” he pressed his palms against his eyes and heaved a big, long sigh. “S-sorry, I’m kind of a mess.”

“That’s okay,” Souji croaked, and realized that his own throat was tight, and his eyes were a little misty, too. He reached up and wiped at them, composing himself at the same time that Yosuke was trying to. 

“I...I’ve liked you for a while,” Yosuke said, after he finally managed to lower his hands. “Probably since you pulled me out of that stupid trashcan.”

“But,” Souji started before he could stop himself, “What about-”

“I know I was a dick to Kanji,” the brunette sighed. “I was just really freaked out. I...I really didn’t want to have a crush on you, y’know? You were like the first person that was nice to me here. I just wanted to have a best friend, and not have...have  _ feelings _ get in the way.”

“I get that,” Souji replied, with a little sigh. “I only decided to tell you because I hate having a crush on someone.”

“I know, right! It’s the worst!” Yosuke agreed. They shared a laugh at that, leaning against each-other. Eventually, Yosuke sighed, reaching over to tug Souji into another hug, face planted into his shoulder once again. “I...I dunno whether to be happy or terrified that you like me too,” he admitted. 

“You can be both,” Souji replied. “I am too.”

“Good, at least we’re equals in this,” Yosuke sighed. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before Souji noticed the time on his watch. He groaned.

“I hate to say this, but we’re gonna be late if we don’t get going, and I don’t think we can pull off skipping classes two days in a row without getting in trouble,” he said. Yosuke pulled away. He started to turn around and pick up his bike, but stopped before he had even grabbed a handlebar.

“Wait, there’s one more thing I wanna do...um, if you want to, that is,” he said, turning back to Souji. Souji nodded for him to continue, and he blushed so hard that even his ears turned a little red. “Um, I...I wanna kiss you. I wanted to yesterday at the rink, but, y’know…”

“Go ahead,” Souji managed to reply, and how he didn’t sound overly enthusiastic, even he didn’t know. Yosuke nodded, approaching him and reaching up to cup one of his cheeks and pull him down as he leaned up, tilting his head as he went. 

As far as kisses went, it wasn’t too great. As far as  _ first _ kisses went, though, it was pretty fantastic. It was short and sweet, and they were both smiling when they broke apart, and Souji felt energized for the entire half-day at school. That probably had something to do with the fact that the two of them exchanged flirty looks every time they even so much as looked at each-other. It made it hard to concentrate on the lectures. It made it hard to concentrate on skating, too, which honestly should have been a bigger problem...but somehow, Nanako was some kind of savant at skating. She’d taken to the rink like a fish in water, so much that she was able to keep Souji balanced whenever Yosuke distracted him, even though he was supposed to be the one keeping  _ her _ balanced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my favorite out of all of the prompts I wrote for souyowrimo


	15. Amusement Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Souji was getting some valuable work done, Yosuke would get to relax for a while, and they could both go enjoy the waterpark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got to go to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin back in November, and I wrote this prompt while I was there.

“But why is it Africa-themed?” Yosuke asked, as Souji pushed open the door of their hotel room. He followed his boyfriend inside, but nearly ran into him as he’d stopped completely after only getting a few steps inside the room. 

“Yosuke,” Souji said, turning to him with a huge grin on his face. He pointed at the sink, which was just to their left inside the doorway. “It’s an elephant!”

“Wha?” Yosuke asked, leaning around him to look. There was a towel hanging from the towel rack and, true to Souji’s word, it was an elephant. Well, it was folded to  _ look _ like one anyway. “Huh. Neat.”

“It’s so cool!” Souji exclaimed. Yosuke shrugged.

“I still don’t get why everything’s themed after Africa,” he replied.

“Do they need a reason?” Souji asked. He’d finally gone further inside the room, making room for Yosuke to finally drag his suitcase inside the room and let the door close. Souji dropped his suitcase by one of the beds, Yosuke following suit. Souji had tried to insist on one king-size bed, but they were given two queen beds instead. Souji suspected that this wasn’t entirely due to his really thick Japanese accent, even if his English was flawless. They  _ were _ in Wisconsin, in the United States, during a time that it was...not exactly great to be gay. He’d been sent here by his work - they were installing a new solar power apparatus, and Souji was one of the foremost experts on the particular installation method. He’d gotten them to agree to send Yosuke along as well, and so here they were. Souji was getting some valuable work done, Yosuke would get to relax for a while, and they could both go enjoy the waterpark. Well, the  _ indoor _ waterpark at least -- it was November, and while Inaba in winter was colder, neither of them would have any desire to go to the outdoor waterpark even if it was open. 

“Yosuke,” Souji called from the bathroom. Yosuke paused in his unpacking.

“Yes?”

“The toilet...the brand of toilet they have here is ‘Toto’,” Souji replied, through laughter.

“Hm?” Yosuke asked, bewildered, and Souji laughed. 

“You know, like that one famous song,” Souji explained, and then started singing in English. “It goes ‘I bless the rains down in Africa’.”

“Oh!” Yosuke replied. “Do you think they did that on purpose?”

“I hope so,” Souji replied. “By the way, the tub is huge. It’s long enough that I’ll be able to stretch my legs out!”

“Cool,” Yosuke replied. They finished unpacking and inspecting the room, and Yosuke flopped down on one of the beds with his phone. 

“I need to go meet with the project managers. I shouldn’t be gone long, alright?” Souji eventually said, and Yosuke nodded in response. “Don’t work too hard, alright? This is supposed to be a vacation for you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Yosuke said, but he was unpacking his laptop anyway. 

Souji went to the meeting, Yosuke got a little work and a lot of procrastinating done, and eventually Souji came back. It was still early afternoon, but the sun was starting to set outside, which was intensely weird for both of them. They decided to walk around the resort, looking around the convention center area, the shops, taking a peek at the waterpark, the arcade, the movie theatre...there was a lot. Yosuke had been excited about the arcade, but all of the games were in English, of course, and they didn’t have anything he wanted to play. They eventually went for dinner in the steakhouse - the bill was on Souji’s company, fortunately - and went back to the hotel room to settle in for the night. They ended up scooting the two queen sized beds together and cuddling in the middle. They would have done more than cuddle but they both admitted to being too tired from the long flight. After a good night’s sleep, they’d have most of the following day to play in the waterpark.

Well, Yosuke played in the waterpark, at least.

“Aw c’mon, just go on one water slide! It’s fun, I promise!” Yosuke nagged, but Souji shook his head, folding his arms.

“No. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, thank you. You can go on all the slides you want,” he denied, and Yosuke pouted.

“Aww...well, I don’t want to force you or anything,” he replied.

“I’ll just wait in the hot tub. It’ll be good to relax my muscles,” Souji said.

“You soaked for an hour in the bath last night!” Yosuke pointed out, and Souji shrugged.

“And?” he asked. Yosuke shrugged.

“All right, but don’t blame me if you just turn into a giant prune,” he said, before heading off toward the entrance to one of the slides, waving over his shoulder at Souji. True to form, Souji found the nearest hot tub and perched himself inside, letting the hot water and jets soothe his muscles. He wasn’t even sure how long he relaxed for, but eventually Yosuke was crouching beside him, on the cement outside the hot tub.

“Yo,” he greeted, and Souji blinked up at him. He hadn’t fallen asleep, per se, but he had definitely been dozing.

“Did you ride all the slides?” he asked.

“There was one where you had to have three other people for some reason,” Yosuke sighed. “But I did all the other ones. It was fun!”

“Hm, what do you want to do now?” Souji asked.

“We could get in the wave pool,” Yosuke suggested. “And the lazy river!” Souji nodded, rising out of the hot tub and joining his boyfriend as they made their way over to the wave pool. They picked out a single inner tube each, and Yosuke just ran into the water without any hesitation, using his momentum to sit on top of his tube. 

Souji, however, was a little more hesitant. He’d set one foot in the water, literally, and realized that not only was the water cold, but he’d just been soaking in nice, warm water for who knows how long. Yosuke laughed at what was probably a very vexed expression on his face, getting out of his tube and sloshing over to him.

“Aw, come on, Partner! The water’s fine!” he insisted, and Souji frowned.

“Says the person that wasn’t just in a hot tub,” he replied. Yosuke rolled his eyes.

“If you don’t want to get in, that’s fine, but I was thinking that this is something we could do together that wasn’t just sitting in a hot tub for a while,” he said. Souji huffed.

“Okay, okay,” he said. He mustered up all of his courage, hefted the inner tube onto one of his shoulders, and just made a run for it straight into the deep end of the wavepool, diving under the water in one go. By the time he resurfaced and crawled into his inner tube, he was cold but not uncomfortable. Yosuke floated up next to him, with a big grin.

“That’s my Partner,” he said. “Now then, wanna go in the lazy river?”

The lazy river was, in fact, designed for small children. Souji discovered this about five seconds after entering it, because he scraped one of his feet on the shallow bottom. He very quickly realized that he’d have to sit how Yosuke was sitting in his inner tube in order to have anything resembling a pleasant experience, so he got out of his tube and awkwardly flopped backwards onto it. Yosuke laughed and helped him stay upright, and away they floated.

Overall it wasn’t a bad experience. It wasn’t like there weren’t waterparks in Japan or anything, and the hot tub couldn’t compare to the hot springs at the Amagi Inn for certain, but it was a nice, fun experience all the same. They were both relaxed and happy as they made their trek back to their hotel room. Souji had to work later in the evening, and for most of the following day, and then they’d be on a plane back to Japan again. 

“I’ll call you when I get my dinner break,” Souji informed him, and Yosuke nodded. 

“Got it, Partner. Don’t work too hard, okay?” he replied. Souji nodded.

“You as well,” he said, leaning down for a quick kiss before heading out the door of the hotel room. It would be a nice memory, a few peaceful days in a bizarre, Africa-themed resort in the middle of nowhere in the United States. It would make a nice story to tell, and not to mention they had a ton of pictures to show.  They took at least one selfie with every weird sculpture around the resort, from elephants to giraffes to gorillas, not to mention the towel elephant in their room that they never did disrupt.


	16. Arts/Crafts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They had just gone out last weekend with Dojima-san and everyone from the Investigation Team to make snowmen. They were still there, in fact, stationed around the Dojima household like snowy guardians. Even on sunny afternoons it hadn’t gotten warm enough to melt them very much. That didn’t matter, though - he’d promised to build snowmen with her, and he’d build as many snowmen with her as she wanted.

On a cold Saturday in February, Souji dozed at the kotatsu and appreciated how warm his life was. The kotatsu was new - all of his friends had pitched in together to replace the old, broken one, and this new one worked very, very well. The house was warm, mostly due to the fact that they were halfway through baking a batch of cookies. Nanako’s smile was warm as she sat across from him, cheerfully playing along with the gameshow on TV. She still had a little trouble breathing occasionally, but seeing her like this you would never suspect that just shy of two months ago, she’d been, well...dead. 

Yosuke’s hand in his under the kotatsu was warm in an entirely different way. He had his head propped up with his other hand and was following along with Nanako, offering her suggestions when she got stuck on the trivia. It was the same as most other afternoons since they’d admitted their feelings for each other back in November, during a time when everything was cold and it seemed like there was no more warmth left in the world. Looking back, Souji knew that those cold times had been a nightmare, but it was worth going through them now to see Nanako’s smile and to feel Yosuke’s hand in his.

The trivia show went to commercial, and Nanako turned to look at him, a big, eager grin on her face. “Big Bro, can we go make snowmen again?”

They had just gone out last weekend with Dojima-san and everyone from the Investigation Team to make snowmen. They were still there, in fact, stationed around the Dojima household like snowy guardians. Even on sunny afternoons it hadn’t gotten warm enough to melt them very much. That didn’t matter, though - he’d promised to build snowmen with her, and he’d build as many snowmen with her as she wanted.

“Sure,” Souji replied, and Nanako cheered. Yosuke gave a big, dramatic sigh, but he was smiling.

“And I just got warm, too,” he mock-complained.

“Awww, come on Big Bro Yosuke, you have to help too!” Nanako chided, and Souji barely kept himself from laughing, because he saw the precise moment that Yosuke’s heart melted. Nanako had just recently started calling him “Big Bro Yosuke” out of the blue, and Souji suspected that the brunette still wasn’t used to it.

“Well, I  _ guess _ I can help,” Yosuke said, letting go of Souji’s hand to stand up. Souji missed the warmth already. Ten minutes later, they were suited up in their winter gear and were headed outside.

Most of the snowmen they’d already built had been contained in the garden area beside the household, and were still there, including Teddie’s surprisingly accurate “snow bear” version of his bear form, Kanji’s seven-foot-tall snowman that they had all dubbed a “snow ogre”, and Souji’s attempt at making a snow version of King Frost. There wasn’t very much room left on that side of the house, but they were headed for the backyard today, where there was still plenty of room. 

“So, what do you want to make today, Nanako-chan?” Yosuke asked. Nanako thought for a second, making a ‘hmm’ sound.

“I guess...something cute?” she requested. Yosuke nodded, and appeared to start thinking deeply. 

“I have an idea,” Souji chimed in, and Yosuke raised an eyebrow at him.

“It’s not one of your Personas again is it?” he asked. 

“Not...exactly,” Souji replied. He’d been thinking about the Jack Frost doll he had in his room, but now that he thought about it, hadn’t Jack Frost also been one of his Personas? Huh. Weird. Well, whatever. “It’s cold, and Nanako wants to make something cute, so I thought about Jack Frost.”

“Oh, you mean that cute little blue and white guy? Perfect!” Nanako praised, and Souji couldn’t help smiling. 

Souji took the lead. He directed Yosuke and Nanako in rolling up a couple of big snow balls, while he worked on the foundation. In no time he was carefully shaping the clumps of snow into a pretty decent approximation of a seated, smiling Jack Frost. 

“It  _ is _ cute!” Nanako praised, when the three of them finally stepped back to survey their work. She grinned up at Souji, gloved hand in his. “Thanks, Big Bro!”

“Any time, Nanako,” Souji replied, beaming down at her. He noticed that her face was a little pinker than it should have been, and she was breathing a little more heavily than before. “You should get inside and warm up, okay?” 

“Sure!” she replied, cheerfully letting go of his hand and making a beeline for the door. “I’ll start warming up water for tea, okay Big Bro?”

“Go ahead!” he called after her. He was just about to turn to Yosuke and ask if he wanted to stay outside a little longer, when a clump of snow hit the side of his face, and Yosuke cackled. 

“Sorry, Partner, it was too good of an opportunity!” Yosuke said. Souji bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, whirling on his boyfriend and forming it into a snowball as he went, chucking the newly-formed snowball at him. It hit Yosuke dead in the chest and exploded all over his torso, much to Souji’s delight. “Oh, it’s  _ on _ now!”

The yard was soon filled with careening snowballs and their laughter as they desperately dodged and weaved around each-other, tossing handfuls of snow whenever they could get a clear shot. Eventually Souji maneuvered Yosuke into a corner of the yard where the snow was piled up. He took a snowball to the face and another to the chest, but managed to tackle Yosuke into the pile of snow, pinning his arms and legs and looking down at him with a wolfish grin. Even though it was cold and they were both panting from exertion, Souji could confidently say that the redness in Yosuke’s cheeks had more to do with him. 

“Gotcha,” Souji announced, triumphantly. 

“I’m pretty sure this is against the rules of a snowball fight,” Yosuke complained.

“I didn’t know there were rules,” Souji countered. Then he leaned down and kissed the brunette, before he could protest any further. Yosuke didn’t seem to mind too much, if the pleased noise he made into the kiss was any indication. Or the way he managed to wriggle his arms out of Souji’s grasp, only to wrap them around his torso and pull him closer. Yosuke gave a sigh when they eventually pulled away.

“As much as I like making out with you,” he said, a dark red tinge to his cheeks, “This is really cold, and the snow is starting to seep into my clothes.” Souji chuckled, but sat back and helped his boyfriend out of the snow drift. He brushed as much of the snow off of his back as he could, and attempted to brush snow off of his butt before Yosuke shoved him away with a nervous chuckle and an amused glare.

Nanako didn’t seem to notice or care that they were both covered in snow when they finally went back inside. She just took their coats from them, hanging them up to dry, and put two mugs of tea in front of them when they sat back down at the kotatsu. And, once again, Yosuke reached out underneath the kotatsu blanket to lace their fingers together, and Souji was warm again.


	17. A Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Overseas, if two people are standing under the mistletoe, they’re supposed to kiss,” Souji explained. Predictably, Yosuke went from having one eyebrow raised -- as if to say ‘that’s a weird tradition’ -- to red-faced in a short amount of time. He slowly lifted his gaze to the cluster of mistletoe, which they were indeed standing directly under, and looked back down at Souji. He gulped. Souji took a step closer and he visibly panicked, but all Souji did was lean down and give him a quick, harmless peck on the forehead. He was smirking when he pulled away, and Yosuke somehow looked relieved, irritated, and embarrassed all at once.

“Hey, Partner,” Yosuke said, getting Souji’s attention. Souji looked over at him, noticing him pointing up at something in the trees that were lining the path they were following. “I’ve been wondering...what are those weird balls of vines? I see ‘em every winter, and I always forget to look up what they are. If anybody knows about ‘em it’s probably you, right, Mr. Top-of-the-class?” Souji laughed.

“I’m glad that you think so highly of me,” he teased. But Yosuke was right - he did know what they were. He’d gotten curious and looked them up. “They’re called  _ yadogiri _ . It’s a parasitic plant that uses its roots to suck nutrients out of the host tree. That’s why they’re always green, even in the winter.”

“Huh. That’s neat,” Yosuke replied. They slowed to a stop right underneath one of the clusters of vines, so that Yosuke could take a closer look at it. Souji smirked, an awful idea coming to his mind - but now that he’d had the idea, he  _ had _ to go through with it. 

“Overseas they call it ‘mistletoe’,” Souji started. When Yosuke didn’t react, Souji felt his smirk grow wider. He’d halfway expected his friend to already know about mistletoe and the tradition of kissing under it, thanks to the large amount of foreign movies he watched. Then again, they were almost all action movies, so it wasn’t that surprising that Yosuke didn’t know. “And they have a kind of funny tradition...want to hear about it?” 

“Sure,” Yosuke replied, looking down from the cluster of vines to look at Souji’s face. Perfect.

“Overseas, if two people are standing under the mistletoe, they’re supposed to kiss,” Souji explained. Predictably, Yosuke went from having one eyebrow raised -- as if to say ‘that’s a weird tradition’ -- to red-faced in a short amount of time. He slowly lifted his gaze to the cluster of mistletoe, which they were indeed standing directly under, and looked back down at Souji. He gulped. Souji took a step closer and he visibly panicked, but all Souji did was lean down and give him a quick, harmless peck on the forehead. He was smirking when he pulled away, and Yosuke somehow looked relieved, irritated, and embarrassed all at once.

“J-just because it’s a tradition overseas doesn’t mean you have to do it, you know,” he answered, after nearly a full minute of silence. Souji laughed.

“C’mon, we’ll be late if we don’t get a move on,” Souji replied, turning to walk away. Yosuke hastily followed, and Souji didn’t miss how he brought a hand up to gingerly touch his forehead, where Souji had kissed him. 

That had been late fall, when the trees still had some of their leaves. Winter soon swept in, and with all of the leaves on the ground it was easy to spot the clusters of vines high up in the trees - and there were surprisingly a lot in the little town. Souji made it a point to try to steer Yosuke under as many as possible, and when he did he’d teasingly kiss Yosuke’s cheek or his hand or the top of his head, enjoying his flustered but annoyed reactions. He never got truly mad at Souji, just irritated at worst, and the best part was that Souji got to kiss Yosuke without any fear of repercussions. 

Then the mess with Namatame and Nanako and Adachi happened, and Souji stopped. How could he have fun with Yosuke when his little sister was battling for her life in the hospital, and the culprit behind the murders had escaped into the TV world?

It was one of those cold, foggy December days. He and Yosuke had met up to walk to school together as always, passing rows of trees on their trek through the floodplain area. They hadn’t met up with the rest of the Investigation Team yet, so it was just the two of them for the time being, walking in silence through the fog. 

“P-partner,” Yosuke suddenly said, reaching out and gently grabbing his elbow, prompting him to stop and turn to him. He grinned, though his grin was a little nervous looking, and gestured up. “Look! We’re under the mistletoe.” Souji couldn’t help chuckling.

“Are you asking for a kiss?” he teased, and predictably Yosuke went red. 

“N-no!” he blurted, with a huff. “That isn’t what I- I don’t...I was just trying to lighten the mood, you jackass.” Souji laughed. He stepped closer to Yosuke, who blushed, but stood his ground. 

“Thanks, Yosuke,” he said. He leaned down, intending to kiss him on the cheek like he had so many times before, but a last second impulse made him press a gentle, quick kiss to his lips instead. Yosuke froze, staring at him wide-eyed when he pulled away, and he could tell there was a blush on his own cheeks as he stared back at the brunette. 

“A-ah...umm…” Yosuke attempted, shutting his mouth as quickly as he had opened it, looking completely out of his depth. Souji cursed his own lack of restraint, because now that he’d done it he had no idea what to do. (Well, he wanted to run away, but that wasn’t going to help anybody.) He could try to play it off as a joke, like he’d done for all of the other kisses, but...something told him that it wasn’t going to be quite as easy. 

“Sorry,” Souji started, looking from Yosuke’s stunned face to the ground in front of him. “I know how you feel about this sort of thing, and I...took the joke too far, right?” Yosuke sighed, and Souji looked up at him.

“Dumbass...did I complain about it? Did I complain about  _ any _ of the kisses?” he asked. His entire face was red. “Do you get what I’m trying to say?”

“No?” Souji asked, because he was honestly baffled. It sounded like Yosuke was trying - albeit badly - to  _ confess _ to him, but there was no way he was, right? Because Yosuke was straight, and Yosuke hated ‘gay stuff’, and he’d only gone along with the mistletoe thing for so long because…

Because?

“Idiot...are you really gonna make me say this?” Yosuke asked, putting a hand over his face and taking a deep breath in, slowly letting it out. He peeked up at Souji with one uncovered eye, and Souji felt like he couldn’t breathe. Was this really happening? They stood in silence for a while longer, Yosuke’s jaw clenching and his free hand curling into a fist, before he finally seemed to have had enough. He let his hand drop away from his face and squared up his shoulders, facing Souji with a determined look on his face. 

“I like you,” he finally said, and his entire face was red and it looked like he was barely holding himself back from just turning and running away. Souji reached out and grabbed one of his shoulders to stop him, and he jumped. “Look, I know I’ve been really shitty about this, and...and you can do way better than me, but I just thought, y’know, with all the kissing under the mistletoe...I thought…”

“I like you too, Yosuke,” Souji interrupted, and Yosuke shut his eyes, giving a relieved little sigh.

“Oh, good, because I was going to feel like a real asshole if you didn’t,” he replied. Souji raised his other arm and put it on Yosuke’s other shoulder, and the brunette cracked open his eyes to look up at him, bashful. Souji smiled down at him, and he blushed, looking up instead. “O-oh, we’re...we’re still under the mistletoe.”

“So we are,” Souji replied. He waited patiently for Yosuke to feel confident enough to look down and meet his eyes, before leaning forward and pulling Yosuke towards him, meeting him in the middle with another soft kiss. At least, that’s how it started. When Yosuke started kissing back, he couldn’t help himself from sliding one hand off of Yosuke’s shoulder and pushing it into his hair, cradling his head as they started to kiss a little harder. He felt Yosuke’s hand in his own hair, and it made his blood run hot. They eventually separated, but only enough for Souji to lean his forehead against Yosuke’s, eyes closed and listening to Yosuke’s panting. 

“W-we should head to school. The others are waiting on us,” Yosuke said, but made no motion to move his hand out of Souji’s hair. He was twisting a lock of hair between his fingers, and it was driving Souji insane. He knew he needed to tell Yosuke to stop or he would have an unfortunate problem that would make it difficult to walk the rest of the way to school, but...it felt too good for him to want Yosuke to stop. Truthfully, school was the last thing Souji wanted to worry about. Right now he wanted to push Yosuke up against the tree they were still standing under, or maybe drag him back to his room, and make out with him for the rest of the day. But that was probably too much too fast, and they really  _ did _ need to go to school. 

“We should,” Souji answered, with a sigh.So, regretfully, he pulled away, hand sliding out of Yosuke’s hair as they disentangled from each-other. Yosuke looked up at him and snickered.

“Your hair’s a mess,” he said, reaching up and smoothing it down for him. Souji blushed. Not wanting to be the only one that was flustered, he reached out and caught Yosuke’s hand as he pulled it back toward his side. He laced their fingers together, and Yosuke looked away with a blush, but didn’t try to take his hand back. 

“I should get some mistletoe and hang it in my room,” Souji mused, and Yosuke sputtered.


	18. Christmas (Eve)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Guys don’t usually hang out together on Christmas Eve, that’s all,” Yosuke muttered.
> 
> “Is there something wrong with wanting to hang out with your best friend on Christmas Eve?” Souji asked, and Yosuke felt simultaneously happy that Souji had called him his best friend, and terrified because he was really, really considering saying yes and going over there, and he didn’t know what he would do but he was sure it was going to be phenomenally stupid.

“Alone on Christmas Eve,” Yosuke sighed, staring up at the ceiling of his room. His parents had left for Okina - this was one of the rare days of the year where they both had the time away from work and no other obligations, so they were out on a well-deserved date. Teddie had volunteered for the Christmas Eve shift at Junes, and Yosuke hadn’t been able to talk him out of it. The bear was learning the hard way that the Christmas Eve shift was one of the worst shifts of the entire year. Yosuke was a little glad for the silence, but at the same time he was still a little sad about it. After all, why would he want to be alone on Christmas Eve when he could be spending it with someone he liked? 

Then again, up until about a month ago, “someone he liked” would have absolutely been some cute girl. He was kind of glad that he  _ wasn’t _ spending Christmas Eve with the person that he liked, because he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he liked  _ Souji _ . He wasn’t sure why. (No, that was a lie. He knew perfectly well why he was crushing on Souji, he just didn’t want to admit it to himself.) He wasn’t sure how. (Again, that was a lie. It was hard not to fall for your best friend when your best friend was the only person you could really talk to, who would really  _ listen _ to you, who didn’t judge you or tease you.) He just knew that he was sort of glad that he wasn’t spending Christmas Eve with Souji, because there was no way he wouldn’t make an absolute fool of himself if he did.

But then again, if Souji wasn’t spending Christmas Eve with  _ him _ , he was probably spending it with one of the girls. Over the months of their friendship Souji hadn’t said  _ anything _ to indicate which one of them he liked, but Yosuke was sure it had to be  _ one _ of them. Rise was flirting with him nonstop, and she was drop-dead gorgeous and funny and successful...so it was probably her. But then again, Yukiko seemed to be into Souji too, and she was beautiful and refined and charming...there was the “Amagi Challenge” for a reason, after all. But even if Souji didn’t want to go for either of them, there was Chie, and Yosuke had to admit that she was really cute, and cheerful and energetic, and she had legs for  _ days _ . Or maybe Souji liked Naoto? She might be kind of quiet, but Yosuke had seen Naoto’s cute side, and plus she was smart - like,  _ really _ smart. If Souji was into smart girls, Naoto was definitely a shoe-in. 

The point was, Souji was absolutely dating one of them. He  _ had _ to be. Who wouldn’t? So Yosuke wouldn’t be spending Christmas Eve with him, and since there wasn’t anybody  _ else _ he wanted to spend Christmas Eve with, he might as well play a video game or something. 

Just as got up to head over to his computer, his phone chirped. Without thinking or looking at it he grabbed the phone and unlocked it, and nearly threw it across the room in surprise.

> > Are you busy tonight? Want to hang out?

Yosuke blinked, read the message again,  _ reread _ the message again, made sure the sender was actually Souji, and then replied.

> >> u kno its xmas eve rite

He got a response back incredibly quickly.

> > Yes? Are you busy?

Yosuke contemplated the message for a second, wondering what weird parallel dimension he’d wandered into, before replying.

> >> rn’t u w/ 1 of the girls?
> 
> > No? Why would I be?

What in the world was going on here? He decided to forego texting and just call Souji.

“Yosuke? What is it?” Souji’s voice came through the receiver. Yosuke tried not to panic.

“I figured this would be faster than texting. No I’m not busy but...it’s Christmas Eve, Partner,” Yosuke explained. He could almost  _ hear _ one of Souji’s eyebrows raise.

“We’ve established that,” Souji replied, and Yosuke let out a frustrated sigh.

“Couples hang out on Christmas Eve, Partner. Shouldn’t you be with one of the girls?” he asked.

“I’m not dating any of them,” Souji answered, and Yosuke bit his tongue not to answer with ‘you liar’. 

“Okay but...don’t you want to be? I guarantee if you call any of them right now, they’ll come running,” he continued.

“I don’t want to date any of them,” Souji replied. 

“Are you kidding me?” Yosuke asked, with an annoyed huff.

“If you don’t want to come over, I understand,” Souji said.

“N-no! It’s not that, it’s just…” Yosuke trailed off, biting his lip.

“What?” Souji asked.

“Guys don’t usually hang out together on Christmas Eve, that’s all,” Yosuke muttered.

“Is there something wrong with wanting to hang out with your best friend on Christmas Eve?” Souji asked, and Yosuke felt simultaneously happy that Souji had called him his  _ best friend _ , and terrified because he was really, really considering saying yes and going over there, and he didn’t know what he would do but he was sure it was going to be  _ phenomenally stupid _ .

“Yes! I mean, no, I mean...gah, it just seems kind of...gay, doesn’t it? Christmas Eve is for couples, not friends,” Yosuke groaned. 

“...I get it,” Souji sighed. His voice sounded kind of...tight now. Yosuke started to low-key panic. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out, or anything.”

Damn it, now he’d just made an ass of himself!

“No no, I’m sorry. I’ll...look, I’ll come over, okay?” Yosuke said, and Souji sighed.

“I don’t want you to do something you clearly don’t want to do, Yosuke,” he replied.

“I do want to, though! I really do!” Yosuke exclaimed, exasperated. “I just wish it wasn’t so...that  _ I  _ wasn’t so...ugh.”

Open mouth, insert foot.

“I’ll be over in fifteen minutes, okay? Do I need to bring anything?” Yosuke asked, and he heard Souji give a little laugh in response.

“Don’t worry about it, just come over, okay?” he replied.

“Yeah, sure,” Yosuke grumbled, hanging up. He looked at the phone for a moment and sighed. 

Maybe he should just...tell him. Souji was an understanding guy, and he honestly couldn’t see him avoiding Yosuke or not wanting to be friends with him. He’d probably let him down gently, too, and Yosuke hated the fact that being let down gently sounded pretty appealing. It was better than being laughed at by a girl, after all. Heck, there were times when Souji would give him a peculiar look, or stare at him a little too long, that made him think that maybe, just maybe, Souji was into him too, and-

And that was as far as he was letting that train of thought go. There was no way Souji liked him, anyway. And, well, that was fine. He could pour his feelings out to Souji and get rejected, and then he could move on with his life. 

He spent the whole walk over to the Dojima residence psyching himself up to confess.

When Souji opened the door and some absolutely  _ delicious _ smells wafted out of the doorway, all Yosuke could think was how lucky he was, to be able to get all of this off of his chest  _ and _ get some good food out of the deal.

“Damn, smells good,” he praised as he stepped inside, taking off his shoes at the entrance. Souji laughed. Yosuke noticed the lack of shoes at the entrance and paused.

“Where are Nanako-chan and Dojima-san?” he asked.

“At the hospital. They went for hopefully their final check-up,” Souji explained, and Yosuke winced.

“On Christmas Eve? What rotten luck,” he replied, and Souji nodded.

“Yeah. They’ll be gone until night and...um, I kind of didn’t want to be alone, so thanks for coming over,” Souji admitted, and Yosuke felt like a jerk.

“Sure…” he trailed off, with  an inaudible sigh. “Sorry...I was so preoccupied with it being Christmas Eve.”

“It’s fine. I wasn’t thinking,” Souji apologized, and Yosuke winced again.

“Hey, hey, you’ve got nothing to apologize for, Partner. I’m being an idiot,” Yosuke said. He sighed. “I just...Christmas Eve is always frustrating for me, since I never get to spend it with… y’know, a special person.” Souji turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, and he panicked. “N-not that you’re not special! I mean, uh, special in the dating way, y’know? And, ugh, it’s hard not to think about that stuff on Christmas Eve, right? So...so don’t worry about it. It’s just me being a jerk, as usual.”

“You’re not being a jerk,” Souji corrected him, his voice quiet.  “And...thanks for coming over, even though this is a hard day for you.”

“It’s alright. Honestly, I’m kind of glad to be able to spend Christmas Eve with someone that isn’t my parents,” Yosuke replied. Souji laughed.

“Even if that person is just me and not a cute girl?” he teased, and Yosuke rolled his eyes.

“I’d rather spend time with you than a cute girl anyway,” he replied. Souji blinked, mouth open, and then smirked when Yosuke finally realized just what he’d said, and started to turn red. “T-that’s not what I...shut up!”

“I didn’t say anything,” Souji pointed out, snickering. Yosuke pouted, and Souji turned toward the kitchen. “Alright, come on. Let’s go ahead and eat, and-” Yosuke stopped him with a hand on one of his wrists, and he looked back at him, curious. 

“A-actually, Partner, there’s something I wanna talk to you about first,” he said, and couldn’t quite look him in the eyes. 

“Sounds serious,” Souji replied, turning back and giving Yosuke his full attention. “Is everything okay?

“I’ve had a lot on my mind lately,” Yosuke said, with a sigh. “And I’ve got some stuff I  _ really _ need to get off my chest. I just...I just hope you don’t hate me afterwards.”

“What is it?” Souji asked, after Yosuke fell silent. Yosuke took a deep breath and, somehow, mustered up the courage to look him in the face.

“Let me down gently, okay Partner? I really like you,” he finally said. Souji looked stunned, staring at Yosuke almost uncomprehendingly. Yosuke audibly swallowed, and tried waiting for him to speak, but got too nervous. “I-I...I know that’s real rich, coming from me, after the way I treated Kanji and how I’ve been acting since the bathhouse. And it won’t surprise me if you don’t feel the same way...I mean, why would you? I just...I needed to get this out in the open, so you can reject me and I can get over myself.”

There were a few agonizing moments of total silence as Souji stared at him, and Yosuke felt himself getting more and more flustered as time went on. Finally, Souji spoke.

“I can’t,” he said. Can’t what? Be Yosuke’s friend anymore? Be around him anymore?

“Can’t what?” Yosuke managed to ask, though his jaw almost refused to work.

“I can’t reject you,” Souji finally continued. Yosuke stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Huh?” he asked, and Souji gave a sad smile. 

“I can’t reject you because...I like you too,” he said. All of a sudden, Yosuke felt a rush of pure, warm happiness and a spike of cold, terrible fear. He wanted to date Souji, he wanted it  _ so bad _ but...what if he messed everything up? What if he lost his best friend because he was selfish? What would everyone else think? What-

“Oh,” he managed to squeak, out of a throat that was almost uncooperative. 

“Were you  _ hoping _ to get rejected?” Souji asked, stepping closer to Yosuke. They were only a few inches apart now. Yosuke swallowed.

“Yes…? I mean, sort of. I just didn’t want to have to feel like this any more,” Yosuke managed, staring firmly at the floorboards in front of him. 

“This?” Souji prompted, and Yosuke sighed.

“Like I have a huge, stupid secret and I can’t ever let anyone find out. Like being around you is the best feeling in the world and terrifying all at the same time. Like every time you smile at one of the girls my heart breaks,” he mumbled, still looking at the floor.

“Partner,” Souji said, and his voice was full of affection, but also kind of melancholy. Yosuke looked up, to find him giving him a pained smile. “Now you know how I’ve been feeling since the summer.” 

“Wh… r-really?” Yosuke asked in response, and Souji nodded. He was blushing, which was both extremely fascinating and extremely cute. 

“Except I never had any kind of hope that you’d ever return my feelings,” Souji continued. “You made it very clear that you were straight, so I never  _ let _ myself have any hope.”

“Sorry,” Yosuke sighed.

“What are you apologizing for?” Souji asked, and Yosuke groaned.

“If I’d realized this sooner, I could’ve spared us both a lot of pain,” he replied.

“You needed time to come to terms with it, I’m not going to fault you for that. And I’m glad you finally figured it out,” Souji said. 

“Me too,” Yosuke replied. Souji nodded, and then he cautiously stepped a little closer to Yosuke, reaching up and setting a hand on his shoulder. Yosuke managed to keep himself from flinching away from the touch, but he couldn’t help the way his heart raced. Souji looked him in the eyes.

“Is this okay?” he asked, and Yosuke nodded, several times, emphatically. Souji shuffled even closer. They weren’t quite touching yet, but there wasn’t a lot of space left between them. “You’ll tell me if I go to far, right?”

“Of course,” Yosuke said out loud. He wanted to say that there was no way Souji could ever go  _ too far _ , but kept that to himself...for now at least. Souji raised his other hand up and gently placed it on the side of Yosuke’s face, fingertips tangling in the hair on the back of his neck. Yosuke was surprised to find himself leaning into the touch, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. In retaliation he reached his own hands up, looping his arms around Souji’s neck and pulling him closer, until their bodies were pressed against each-other and their mouths were barely an inch apart. Souji looked surprised, but his lips curved into a small smirk. Yosuke couldn’t bring himself to care that arms-around-the-neck was what a  _ girl _ did. 

Yosuke honestly didn’t know which one of them moved first, only that they were kissing all of a sudden and it was about a thousand times better than he’d ever let himself imagine it would be. Souji’s mouth was warm, and it felt like little crackles of electricity were spreading across his skin from everywhere Souji was touching. He had a passing thought of being weak to electricity, but dismissed it immediately in favor of how good it felt when Souji started toying with his hair. They eventually separated, but only barely.

“Merry Christmas,” Yosuke breathed, and Souji laughed, before going back in for another kiss. This time Souji slid his arms around Yosuke’s torso and pulled them more firmly together, and Yosuke felt a little light headed. When Souji pulled away to breathe, Yosuke tried to chase his lips. Souji smirked, and Yosuke knew this was the best decision he’d ever made. He started to lean in for another kiss, but his stomach chose that moment to let out a huge, audible growl. Souji laughed and Yosuke blushed and glared down at his stomach, but Souji was already disentangling them.

“Let’s eat. I got a little carried away, so I made a bunch of different foods…” he said, taking Yosuke’s hand and leading him into the kitchen. Yosuke knew he probably had the most lovestruck look on his face, but he honestly didn’t care. He liked his best friend, and Souji  _ liked him back _ , and he was getting to eat delicious food. Best Christmas Eve ever. 


	19. Personas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He found Souji out on the balcony, wrapped up in a coat and blanket on the little wicker sofa and curled around his sketchbook. He opened the sliding glass door quietly, and plopped down next to him on the sofa, careful not to jostle him too much.

The smell of coffee, toast and eggs was what woke up Yosuke Hanamura on most days, and Sundays were no exception. At first, years ago, he’d felt a little bad that he never seemed to be able to wake up before Souji did, and so by default Souji was always the one cooking breakfast for them. But Souji didn’t mind, and over the years of them living together as friends, then as a little more than friends, then fiancees, and now husbands, Yosuke had just gotten used to it. Souji was a morning person, Yosuke was a night owl. Souji always woke up before he did, and making coffee and breakfast for two was just as easy as making it for one person. 

He must have been feeling nostalgic this morning, because those were the thoughts that followed him as he rolled out of bed, folding and tugging the sheets and blankets into place as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. He got a quick shower and slipped into some clothes - just jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, it was Sunday so neither of them had anywhere important that they had to be. 

His breakfast was waiting for him at their table as usual, and it was perfect, as usual. The coffee was piping hot, with just the right amount of cream and sugar, just how he liked it. The eggs were fried just perfectly too, the whites firm and the yolks runny. The toast was the perfect shade, with butter and jam spread across it. Heaven. He was in heaven. He ate slowly, savoring the taste of the lovingly prepared breakfast as he scrolled through his social media. He finally finished and put his dishes in the dishwasher, noting that it was nearly full. He added soap and started it. 

He found Souji out on the balcony, wrapped up in a coat and blanket on the little wicker sofa and curled around his sketchbook. He opened the sliding glass door quietly, and plopped down next to him on the sofa, careful not to jostle him too much.

“What are you doing out here, Partner? It’s cold!” he greeted. Souji smiled, looking up from his work and setting aside the charcoal pencil he’d been sketching with. He leaned over and graced his partner with a quick, affectionate kiss on the lips.

“I like being out here. It’s peaceful,” he said. Yosuke raised an eyebrow.

“If you say so. All the car noises and barking dogs would kill my concentration if I tried to work out here,” he replied.

“You get used to it,” Souji explained. “And I didn’t say  _ quiet _ , I said  _ peaceful _ .”

“The cats?” Yosuke asked, and Souji nodded.

“The cats. They like to sit in my lap while I’m drawing. Then they start fighting over my lap because there isn’t enough room for both of them and my sketchbook,” Souji explained, with a little sigh. “And if by some miracle they manage to find a compromise and settle down...they try to attack my pencil. Do you know how many drawings they’ve ruined that way?”

“But they’re cute,” Yosuke pointed out, and Souji laughed.

“They are cute,” he said. Souji reached for his pencil.

“So which one are you working on today?” Yosuke asked, leaning over again to look of Souji’s shoulder. The sketch was still in its early stages, but it was obvious to Yosuke what it was. A round, dark head with two round “ears”, a long flowing scarf, long arms and legs...Souji was sketching Jiraiya. Or attempting to, at least. 

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, but you recognize him, right?” Souji asked, and Yosuke nodded. 

“I thought you said you weren’t going to try to draw any of the ones that aren’t yours?” Yosuke asked, and Souji smiled a little, bashfully.

“W-well, we’re married, and what’s yours is mine, so I figured…” he trailed off, blushing a little. Even after all this time together, Yosuke still found it incredibly cute. 

“Did you run out of ones to draw?” Yosuke asked. He shifted so that he was leaning fully against Souji’s side now, chin propped up on his shoulder. 

“Not...exactly. I’ve run out of ones I  _ want _ to draw, at least,” Souji explained. “And I don’t know...I guess I was feeling nostalgic this morning. I was thinking about you and Inaba and everything we went through together. Look, I even redrew Izanagi,” he said, flipping a page back and showing Yosuke a completed, even colored drawing of the familiar Persona. 

“Must be something in the air,” Yosuke replied, with a smile. “I was feeling nostalgic this morning, too.”

“It’s been a while...we should go visit Inaba soon,” Souji replied, flipping back to his incomplete drawing. “And...I know I’m missing some details on Jiraiya. It’s been a long time, and I can’t exactly look up what your Persona looked like on the internet…”

“Well, you got the scarf right,” Yosuke began. He reached out and pointed at the chest. “He had a big, golden spiky thing on his chest, kind of like a grin. And his arms were longer…”

In the end, even though Yosuke was freezing cold, he stayed out on the balcony with his Partner for a while, watching him work and correcting him when he drew things a little bit off. He helped pick out colors, too, and eventually they were bathed in sunlight, and he was warm and content. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.


	20. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nanako,” Yosuke groaned, slumping down in his chair and letting his head rest on the table in front of him, face down. “It’s been hours and we still haven’t found anything to get for him.”
> 
> “Big Bro is really hard to buy for,” Nanako acknowledged. She sighed and he heard a thump from her side of the table, and figured that she had probably put her head down too.

“Nanako,” Yosuke groaned, slumping down in his chair and letting his head rest on the table in front of him, face down. “It’s been hours and we still haven’t found anything to get for him.”

“Big Bro is really hard to buy for,” Nanako acknowledged. She sighed and he heard a thump from her side of the table, and figured that she had probably put her head down too. 

Nanako was staying with the two of them for her holiday break this year. According to Souji, the pressure of exams had gotten to her and she’d decided that she needed a break from her dad and had packed some bags and gotten on the train...and  _ then _ called him. Of course she was always welcome in their apartment, and both Souji and himself were delighted to have her there. It had seemed, in fact, like a godsend to Yosuke, because who better to help him pick out a Christmas gift for Souji than his beloved little sister?

As it turned out, she was just as stumped as he was.

“We’ve looked in every store in this mall except for the pet store,” Yosuke grumbled, sitting up. Nanako perked up, raising her head to look at him with a look of hope on her face, but he shook his head, dashing her hopes immediately. “We can’t have more than one pet according to our rental agreement.”

“Well...maybe we can get some cat toys? A new bed? A scratching post? A cat tree?” she asked, sitting fully up. He shook his head.

“Anything we buy won’t be as nice as what Souji’s already bought,” he replied, with an annoyed chuckle. “I swear, he spends more money on that cat than he spends on  _ himself _ most of the time. I can’t say I regret getting the cat for him last year, but…”

“Yeah...kind of hard to one-up a cat,” Nanako finished. She grabbed her abandoned coffee and took a swig of it. Yosuke made a face.

“I still don’t get how you can drink that black,” he told her, eyeballing his own coffee - which had so much cream and sugar in it that it was a pale tan color. She laughed.

“Dad says I’m so sweet that I don’t need to add anything to my coffee,” she replied, with a wink. Yosuke laughed too.

“Well that explains Souji too...but I guess that means I’m so bitter that I need all the cream and sugar I can get?” he asked.

“That’s why you and Big Bro are perfect for eachother,” Nanako explained. She put her coffee down and gave him a  _ look _ . “Actually...there  _ is _ one other store we didn’t go in.” Yosuke started to sweat - he knew what she was talking about, but hoped that he could get out of this conversation by hiding behind his coffee cup. “The jewelry store.” 

“Aha, well, you know your Big Bro, he doesn’t really do jewelry, Nanako…” Yosuke attempted to deflect. She put her hands palms-down on the table and leaned over it a little bit, fixing him with a stern look. 

“You know what I’m talking about, Yosuke-nii,” she said, and he almost laughed at the absurdity of her using that nickname for him in the gravest tone imaginable. He sighed.

“Same-sex marriage isn’t legal in Japan yet, Nanako,” he explained. She sat back and shrugged.

“So? You can at least get him a ring,” she argued. He took another long drink of his coffee, and she rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. You can’t be thinking he’ll  _ reject  _ you?” Yosuke averted his eyes, pretending to get very invested in the display of lights across the walkway from them. Nanako sighed. “You two have been living together since college! Anyone that spends more than five minutes with you two can see that you’re stupidly in love. Heck, I was only a little kid back when you two were in high-school and even  _ I  _ could tell, all the way back then! What’s the hold up?”

“I’m just...worried, is all,” Yosuke finally replied, putting down his coffee and facing her fully. “Not that Souji will reject me. We’ve talked about marriage, you know? I…” he trailed off, reaching up to scratch at his hair with a groan. “Souji’s got a really great job. He loves it. I don’t want to do anything that would put him at risk. And...it may not seem like much, but a ring? He’d either have to lie and tell his boss and coworkers that he got engaged to a girl, or tell them the truth, and getting outed at work totally gets people fired.”

“...that blows,” Nanako swore, and Yosuke raised an eyebrow at her, with a fond grin.

“You’ve been hanging around Kanji, haven’t you?” he asked, and she smirked.

“How can you tell?” she asked. They both laughed. 

“Okay so...we can’t get him another cat, and a ring’s out...hmm,” Nanako said. “Back to square one.”

“What do you get for the person that has everything?” Yosuke grumbled. “Maybe we should try another mall?”

“We should probably go back to your place and drop off all of the other stuff we’ve bought,” Nanako pointed out, gesturing to the dozen or so bags that were sitting at their feet. 

“That’s...probably a good idea,” Yosuke conceded. “Man...how come all of our other friends are so easy to buy for?” Nanako giggled in response. She gathered up their now-empty coffee cups and took them to a nearby trashcan while Yosuke gathered up the numerous bags of gifts that they’d accumulated. 

“We’re gonna have a hell of a time getting all of these with us to Inaba,” Yosuke pointed out, and Nanako shrugged. 

“We’ll manage,” Nanako reassured him. 

On the way back to the apartment they passed by a bookstore, and ducked in momentarily to look around at Nanako’s suggestion. The problem was, there were already a couple of bookshelves in the apartment, full to bursting with all kinds of books - books Souji had gotten for himself, books everyone else had gotten for him, books from his coworkers and parents… and he had books about everything from tarot to mythology to cats to fishing. Yosuke didn’t want to risk getting him a book that he knew Souji was after, because chances were he’d already managed to get a copy and it was in the mail or something. 

“Ahah!” Nanako suddenly exclaimed, and Yosuke poked his head around one of the rows of bookshelves, to find her triumphantly holding a book with the title “The Kitchen Vegetable Garden”. 

“Oh, that’s right, you two had a little garden back when we were in high school,” Yosuke commented, approaching her and setting the bags down at his feet. 

“Excuse you,  _ I’m _ still taking care of the garden, thank you,” Nanako corrected. Yosuke reached out and took the book from her, flipping it over to read the synopsis on the back. 

“We could probably find some little pots and seeds and stuff fairly easily...good find, Nanako-chan! Oh, but we’ll have to pay attention and make sure nothing we grow is toxic to cats…” Yosuke pointed out.

“This book has a section about pet-friendly plants!” Nanako proudly pointed out, and Yosuke, impressed, flipped to the section she was talking about. 

“Alright...so, this can be your gift, and I’ll get him all the supplies he needs. Deal?” Yosuke asked, handing the book back to her. She nodded, grinning. While she went to the counter to buy the book, Yosuke used his phone to pull up a list of nearby stores that sold gardening supplies. 

They ended up spending the rest of the day in a little gardening shop, asking the owner, a young lady by the name of Okumura, for advice. They ended up with pots and trays, a bag of soil, a cute little watering can with cats all over it (of course), and a bunch of seeds. Yosuke had picked up catnip on his own, and Nanako had thrown in a bunch of other herb seeds after checking to make sure they weren’t toxic to cats. The shopkeeper had also suggested chamomile, scallions and salad greens, and had given them some seeds to them for free. 

“They aren’t quite as tasty as regular vegetables, but they’re easy to grow indoors,” she’d said, when she’d handed the seed packets to Yosuke. There were labeled “sun tomatoes” and “moonlight carrots”. When he asked if they were okay for cats, she’d just giggled and assured him that cats could eat them, though they may not like the taste. Yosuke just ended up thanking her and adding the seeds to the pile. Getting everything home was a hassle, and figuring out how to wrap the watering can was even  _ more _ of a hassle, but Yosuke knew it would be worth it to see his partner’s face when he unwrapped all of it.


	21. Tired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t fall asleep, okay? I still have to get up and make dinner,” Souji reprimanded. Yosuke gave a sleepy sounding affirmative, but despite that he was out like a light within minutes. Souji sighed. Normally he’d just wake Yosuke up without a thought, but lately his boyfriend had been having trouble sleeping, and coupled with the long, stressful hours he was working at Junes, well, he’d been in pretty bad shape. A nap couldn’t hurt him. And if he felt comfortable and safe enough to nap on Souji, well, Souji couldn’t bring himself to disturb that trust.

“I’m home,” Yosuke called out as he stepped through the door of the little apartment he and Souji were sharing. 

“Welcome back,” Souji returned, waving at him from the couch. “You sound tired.”

“Work was  _ awful _ ,” Yosuke complained, as he hung up his jacket. “You know how it is this time of the year, Partner. I can’t wait to graduate and get a  _ real _ job somewhere that isn’t Junes.”

“It’ll be January soon, and then it’ll die back down,” Souji reassured, patting the cushion on the couch beside him when Yosuke approached. The brunette all but threw himself onto the couch beside him, slumping against the armrest.

“Christmas is already over,” he groaned. “Why is everybody still shopping so much?” Souji patted him on the back in solidarity.

“Hey, you’re home now. No more unreasonable customers for you for the night,” he said. “The only demand I’m going to make of you is that I want to cuddle.” Yosuke snorted.

“I dunno, that seems pretty demanding to me,” Yosuke joked. He sat up and started to lean over toward Souji, but paused and looked down at what he was wearing. He let out a nervous laugh. “Eheh...mind if I change out of my uniform first?” 

“Go right ahead,” Souji replied. Yosuke rose from the couch - albeit very slowly, and regretfully. He disappeared into the back for a few minutes, reappearing wearing a pair of old sweatpants and an old blue hoodie that he’d had since high school. He made a beeline for the couch, slumping straight back down into the arms of his loving boyfriend. They quickly rearranged themselves so that they were both laying down on the couch, feet hanging off the side, with Yosuke’s head pillowed against Souji’s chest and Souji’s arms wrapped firmly around him.

“Now then, tell me all about the rude customers you’ve had today,” Souji instructed, and Yosuke sighed. 

“There weren’t too many, it was mostly just a lot of parents with bratty kids…” he started. He half-retold half-mumbled his way through his recollection of some of the customers he’d had, while Souji rubbed soothing circles into his back. Souji didn’t have much to talk about in regards to his own day, as business had been slow but steady at the coffee shop he worked at. 

Eventually, they both ran out of things to talk about. Yosuke gave a mighty yawn, and Souji looked at the clock - it was barely even six-o-clock.

“Don’t fall asleep, okay? I still have to get up and make dinner,” Souji reprimanded. Yosuke gave a sleepy sounding affirmative, but despite that he was out like a light within minutes. Souji sighed. Normally he’d just wake Yosuke up without a thought, but lately his boyfriend had been having trouble sleeping, and coupled with the long, stressful hours he was working at Junes, well, he’d been in pretty bad shape. A nap couldn’t hurt him. And if he felt comfortable and safe enough to nap on Souji, well, Souji couldn’t bring himself to disturb that trust.

Half an hour. He’d give him half an hour. And Souji could still hear the TV just fine from where he was laying, so it wasn’t like he was going to get bored.

Thirty minutes turned into an hour. An hour turned into two. Souji was really starting to get hungry, but Yosuke was sleeping so peacefully, so soundly - what could he do?

His phone chimed and vibrated on the table, and Yosuke didn’t even so much as flinch - and there was Souji’s answer. The text was from Rise, just a simple inquiry about his day. 

>  
> 
> >>Sempai! What are you up to? Anything interesting happen today??

 

He put his phone on silent mode, raised it above the two of them, and snapped a picture, making sure to catch enough of Yosuke’s face to show that he was clearly out like a light. He sent the picture.

>  
> 
> >Depends on your definition of interesting
> 
> >>So that’s a no then. You two are so boring!
> 
> >We can’t all be internationally famous idols, Rise.
> 
> >If you have the spare time, I need a favor.
> 
> >>What’s up?
> 
> >I’m starving. Could you stop somewhere and bring food over to us?
> 
> >>Sure, but why not go yourself? That would be faster.
> 
>  

Souji just sent the picture again. He could practically hear her roll her eyes, all the way across town.

>  
> 
> >>Just wake him up!
> 
> >Rise, look at him. Could /you/ wake him up?
> 
> >>Yes. You’re way too soft on him!
> 
> >He’s been having trouble sleeping lately.
> 
> >>Ugh, /fine/. But I’m staying to eat with you guys.
> 
> >That’s fair.
> 
> >>I’ll pick up some beef bowls if that’s okay.
> 
> >Sounds good to me.

 

With the conversation over, Souji put his phone back down on the table and tried to focus on what was on the TV. But between the comfortable warmth and Yosuke’s deep, measured breaths, he found himself dozing off as well.

Rise considered knocking on the door when she got there, but she remembered that Souji had given her a key to the apartment back when they’d first moved in, in case of an emergency. Besides, chances were that Souji had fallen asleep by now too, and if she knocked she’d wake them both up. So she fished out her keys, found the spare key they’d given her, and let herself inside as quietly as possible. The TV was on, but nobody greeted her, meaning they were both definitely asleep. She slipped off her shoes and made her way over to the couch as quietly as possible, finding them both adorably passed out, Yosuke with his head on Souji’s chest, legs twined together. They were disgustingly cute. Rise  _ had _ to get a picture. A few pictures. A bunch of pictures. Her quiet giggling eventually woke Souji up. He blinked a few times up at her, before raising a hand off of Yosuke’s back to wave at her.

“Hey, thanks a bunch, Rise,” he greeted. She walked over to their table and put the takeout bag down on it as quietly as possible, while Souji mustered up the willpower to rouse his boyfriend from sleep. Rise couldn’t help grinning and shaking her head as his attempts repeatedly failed. She took the three containers of meat and three containers of rice out of the bag, sitting down in one of the chairs and grabbing a pair of chopsticks.

“If you two don’t hurry up I’m going to start eating without you,” she warned. She heard a groan from Yosuke in response.

“Partner? Did I just hear Rise-chan?” he asked, sleepy and confused, and Rise giggled.

“Yeah. She brought dinner over for is,” Souji explained.

“Huh?” Yosuke asked. He finally sat up, looking over the couch at her. His hair was a mess, and Rise barely resisted the urge to call him out on it. “Why’d you do that, Rise-chan?” She stood up from the chair and made her way over to the couch, taking her phone out and showing him the chain of texts from Souji. He frowned, folding his arms, as Souji sat up beside him. 

“You could’ve just woken me up, Partner!” Yosuke scolded. Souji shook his head with a chuckle, reaching over to pat down Yosuke’s unruly hair.

“Could I, though?” he asked, gesturing to Rise’s phone. “How was I supposed to disturb you when you looked like  _ that _ ?” Yosuke groaned and rolled his eyes.

“You’re way too cheesy for your own good,” Yosuke sighed, exasperated. He got up off of the couch, offering a hand down to Souji, who took it and let himself be pulled to a standing position. “Anyway, what’d you get for us?”

“Beef bowls,” Rise replied, making her way back over to the table.

“Sweet!” Yosuke cheered, pumping a hand in the air. 

“How much do I owe you?” Souji asked her, as he joined her at the table, sitting across from her. 

“Don’t worry about it. Just don’t make a habit of it, okay? I’m an internationally famous idol, not a delivery service,” she said, with a wink. Souji nodded with a laugh, and with that the three of them dug into their meals. Rise left in high spirits after a good meal and a nice chat with the two of them. Souji promised her that next time he’d just wake Yosuke up, but they both knew it was an empty promise. Rise had more than few pictures as proof, after all.


	22. After School Hangouts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This was a great idea, Partner,” Yosuke complimented, cupping his hands in the water and splashing himself in the face, making a contented noise as he cooled off. Souji copied him, if only so that he had something else to focus on other than watching the water trickle down Yosuke’s chest. This heat wave was definitely getting to him.

The window was open, the fan was on full blast, and they had both stripped out of their shirts nearly an hour ago to try to cool down.

It was still way too hot.

“Man, I never thought I’d say this but I wish Saturdays were a full day at school,” Yosuke complained, sprawled out on Souji’s floor with a wet towel on his face that was rapidly drying out. “Least there’s air conditioning there…”

“Sorry,” Souji groaned from where he, too, was sprawled out on the floor, in a puddle of his own sweat and misery. “Uncle says it isn’t worth it to have an air unit installed when it’s only this hot for a few weeks out of the year.” And it was true: it rarely got quite this bad in Inaba. The news was calling it a ‘record high heat wave’. 

“This sucks,” Yosuke said, for probably what was the fiftieth time today. “How the hell are we supposed to study in this heat wave?”

“Maybe if we study we’ll be able to focus on something else other than how hot it is?” Souji suggested. Even though he couldn’t see it, he could practically hear Yosuke roll his eyes in response. 

“We both know that’s not gonna work,” Yosuke sighed. “God, I almost wanna go to Junes…”

“Whoa now, let’s not do anything rash,” Souji joked. He sat up, looking out the window contemplatively. “It’s obvious we aren’t getting anything accomplished until it cools off. “ He gestured to the abandoned books and pencils on the table nearby. “Why don’t we go down to the Samegawa?”

“Ugh...go outside? In this heat? You’re crazy, Partner,” Yosuke protested, but he too sat up, letting the no longer damp towel slide off of his face and into his lap. 

“At least there will be a breeze. And we can get in the water...though it’s not deep enough to swim…” Souji explained. He reached for his discarded shirt, pulling it back on with finality.

“It’s better than sitting around here, I guess,” Yosuke remarked, also reaching for his shirt. Souji watched him lift it over his head and tug it on, trying and failing not to notice his friend’s toned chest and abs. Had he been working out, or was that all from the TV world?

“Got something on my face, Partner?” Yosuke asked, and Souji shook his head, trying not to blush at having been caught staring.

“I was just noticing that you’ve put on some muscle,” he said, and Yosuke grinned.

“Yeah?” Yosuke asked, looking proud. “The TV world is one hell of a workout, right? You’re getting pretty ripped yourself.” This time, Souji  _ did _ blush, turning away and standing up to hide it.

“We should get going. The sooner the better, right? Hopefully by the time we come back it’ll have cooled off a little in here…” Souji said, heading for the door. Yosuke was right behind him.

“Yeah right. I think it’ll still be stupid hot up here even after sunset,” Yosuke complained. “I’d have to sleep over if you want to wait until it’s cool to study.”

“You could,” Souji responded, throwing the suggestion over his shoulder as they went down the stairs. 

“Really? You don’t think Dojima-san would mind?” Yosuke asked in response.

“I can ask, but I don’t think he’ll care as long as we aren’t loud and we don’t do anything dumb,” Souji answered. “And one extra person for dinner shouldn’t be a big deal...I always make way too much when I cook anyway.”

“Man...a home-cooked meal and a sleepover with my best bro...it’s almost worth having to deal with this heat,” Yosuke said, with a laugh. “What’re you cooking, anyway?”

“Ginger pork,” Souji answered, and Yosuke made a delighted noise, punching the air.

“Awesome! I love your ginger pork, man!” he cheered, and Souji laughed.

“You only love me for my cooking,” Souji teased, as they headed for the front door. Yosuke made a choked noise in response, not registering the teasing tone at first.

“Th-that’s not -- I mean -- your cooking is really good!” he protested, and Souji laughed again.

They chatted about everything and nothing on their way to the Samegawa, the sun glaring down on them harshly, but a nice breeze blowing through that made the walk at least bearable. To their surprise, there wasn’t anybody at the river bank - even the old fisherman that always seemed to be there. The breeze was a little stronger here, and the water was nice and cool when they waded out into the river, shoes and shirts left on the bank. 

“This was a great idea, Partner,” Yosuke complimented, cupping his hands in the water and splashing himself in the face, making a contented noise as he cooled off. Souji copied him, if only so that he had something else to focus on other than watching the water trickle down Yosuke’s chest. This heat wave was definitely getting to him. 

He heard Yosuke snicker, then a splash, and he was suddenly hit with a wave of cool water. He smirked over at a laughing Yosuke and splashed him back. Soon enough they were having a splash fight, which turned into them attempting to grapple with each-other, hands slipping and sliding over wet skin. Finally, they both ended up falling into the river, Souji managing to drag Yosuke down with him as he tripped. Falling onto the rocks hurt a little, but the pain was quickly forgotten as he realized the position they were in. Yosuke had fallen on top of him, managing to catch himself before he fell totally onto him, but their faces were only a few inches apart. Between the way his face was burning and the hot afternoon sun, the cold water he was now laying in was a huge blessing. 

“You okay, Bro?” Yosuke asked, his voice quiet. Strangely, he hadn’t moved at all, looking down at Souji with wide eyes. Souji swallowed, nervous for reasons he wasn’t too keen on observing at the moment. 

“Yeah, probably a little bruised. You?” he asked, his voice equally quiet. Yosuke nodded. He just kept staring down at Souji, almost like he was entranced. Souji opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but Yosuke chose that moment to lean down and kiss him. It was a quick kiss, just a soft press of Yosuke’s lips against his, more of a question than a kiss, really. When he pulled back he was wide-eyed, and Souji could see the precise moment he started to panic.

“Oh - oh shit, man, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me, dude, I wasn’t thinking and-” Yosuke babbled. Souji just reached up and grabbed him by the back of the head, using his other arm to prop himself up a little out of the water, and pressed a much firmer, much longer kiss to his lips. Yosuke was trembling, and he felt him take a sudden, deep breath through his nose, but then he seemed to melt into the kiss, reciprocating with fervor. When Souji pulled away, Yosuke was giving him an adorably confused look.

“S-Souji, I...I don’t…” he started, trailing off with a helpless look on his face. Souji sat up a little more, and Yosuke moved back to let him. He was opening and shutting his mouth like a fish, and as funny as that was, Souji had other plans for that mouth. He pulled Yosuke back toward him, kissing him again and again, until he felt him relax in his grip. He felt Yosuke reach up and cup his cheek with one cold, wet hand, and he pulled away from a kiss to lean into his hand with a contented sigh.

“Souji...I…” Yosuke started. 

“It’s okay. I’m not mad,” Souji said, looking over at him with what he hoped was a calming expression. Yosuke made a quiet, distressed sound, bit his lip and closed his eyes, and dropped his hands to his sides with a little splash. 

“I...I’m not gay,” he said. Souji couldn’t help the disappointed look that came over his face, but Yosuke’s eyes were still closed, so he didn’t see it. He managed to get control over himself, his face falling back into his usual mask of indifference.

“Okay?” he asked. Yosuke opened his eyes and looked over at him, timidly. 

“I...I don’t know what made me want to...d-do that,” he stammered, blushing hotly. 

“Did you like kissing me?” Souji asked, after a moment of watching Yosuke fidget in silence. Yosuke blushed even harder.

“I shouldn’t have,” he answered, and Souji frowned.

“But did you?” he asked. Yosuke nodded, after a moment, averting his gaze to the water below them. “So you kissed me, and you like kissing me. That’s a start.”

“I-I’m not gay!” Yosuke repeated, almost sounding desperate. “I can’t be gay, I like girls!”

“You could be bisexual,” Souji pointed out. Yosuke made a pained face at him. “Or this could have nothing to do with sexuality at all. You could just like kissing me.” Yosuke drew back further and put his face in his hands, making a muffled whining noise.

“I can’t, I don’t - I just wanna be normal!” he protested. “I c-can’t be weird in a town like this, man, I just can’t.”

“Yosuke…” Souji sighed out. Yosuke shook his head, lowering his hands again but not looking up at Souji.

“Sorry, man, I don’t know what to do,” he muttered. 

“We can just pretend this never happened, alright?” Souji suggested. It was painful, but if it was what Yosuke needed… but Yosuke shook his head.

“Can’t,” he said. He finally looked up at Souji again. “I can’t just forget it…’cause I still want to kiss you.” Souji sucked in a surprised breath, staring at him. “I’m not gay but I wanna kiss you, and hug you, and hold your hand, a-and do more than that. It’s stupid, I’m stupid-”

“You aren’t stupid,” Souji reprimanded, reaching forward and putting his hands gently on both of Yosuke’s burning cheeks, tilting his head to look up at him. He looked so lost, so confused. So in need of comfort. He leaned forward, giving Yosuke plenty of time to protest, and kissed him again. He drew back and settled his forehead against Yosuke’s, arms around his shoulders, staring deeply into his eyes. “You aren’t gay, but you want to kiss me and hold my hand. That’s pretty gay if you ask me.”

“I can’t be gay,” Yosuke protested again, not even attempting to draw back away from him. 

“‘Can’t or...shouldn’t?” he asked. Yosuke sighed and closed his eyes, and that was all the answer he needed. “Yosuke?” he asked, prompting Yosuke to open his eyes and look at him. “It’s alright. We’ll figure this out… we can take this one step at a time.”

“You...you aren’t going to stop being my friend?” Yosuke asked, timidly.

“Of course not. We’re Partners, right? Let me help you,” Souji urged. Yosuke nodded, then tilted his face and slotted their mouths together again. When he finally pulled away, Souji gave him a warm smile. “Now then...let’s get out of the water. I’m actually starting to get cold!” Yosuke smiled down at him, and he instantly forgot about being cold, that smile warming him all over. Yosuke stood up and helped him to his feet, and they waded back over to shore. They ended up sitting on one of the picnic tables in the gazebo area, both worried about getting sunburnt. They sat side-by-side and watched the sun set as they dried off, content to listen to the cicadas buzz instead of talking. 

“So, uh...what now?” Yosuke eventually asked. They were walking back to the Dojima residence, the fading light of the sunset and the streetlights illuminating their path. Souji looked over at Yosuke, weighing his options. 

“That’s up to you to decide,” he finally answered. “I’ll go along with whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“Are you sure?” Yosuke asked, and Souji nodded.

“I meant what I said before, Yosuke. I want to help you,” he answered. He smiled shyly, looking away. “And for what it’s worth...I really like you. I’d go out with you if you asked.”

“Oh,” Yosuke wheezed in response, surprised. Things were tense for a few quiet moments, before the Dojima house came into view. Yosuke sucked in a breath, as if psyching himself up.

“I’d like that,” he said. When Souji gave him a baffled look, he clarified: “Going out with you. I think I’d like that. I want to try it, at least.” Souji tried really hard not to get too excited, but couldn’t help grinning over at a blushing Yosuke.

“I’m glad,” he answered, watching Yosuke’s cheeks darken. “Okay. Why don’t we go to Okina tomorrow, for our first date? We can go see a movie, get some coffee, maybe browse around the mall…”

“S-so soon?!” Yosuke asked. Souji chuckled quietly.

“It’ll be air conditioned,” he pointed out. Yosuke blinked, then laughed.

“Okay then, sign me up!” he replied. Souji laughed with him. They approached the Dojima house, and Souji noted the car in the driveway, and the lights on in the kitchen. He glanced around, noting that there wasn’t anybody around, and pulled Yosuke into a quick, cautious kiss before opening the door.

“I’m home! And I brought Yosuke with me, is that alright?” he called. Yosuke just stood there for a few seconds, utterly bewildered, before following Souji into the house. 

Souji did end up making ginger pork, to the delight of both Yosuke and Nanako. Yosuke did end up staying over for the night, and they did eventually get some actual studying done. Things settled into something approaching normal, except that occasionally Souji would lean across the table between them and give him a soft kiss, or Yosuke would reach across the table and thread his hand into Souji’s. Yosuke seemed to get more and more confident with each new gesture. By the time they fell asleep it was nice and cool, and Souji was pretty confident that their date was going to go well. They had plenty of time to figure things out - the anxiety, the doubt, the guilt - but for now, Souji was content with things as they were. It was more than he could have ever hoped would happen between them, after all.


	23. Movies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are these...all the movies we went to see back when you were in Inaba?” Yosuke guessed, looking back at Souji for confirmation. Souji blushed in response, though it was a little hard to tell considering his face was already kind of flushed from the cold. He nodded.
> 
> “All the ones we went to see once we started dating,” Souji clarified. Yosuke turned back to the shelf and, sure enough, they were. Souji had even put them in chronological order. “I...like to watch them when I get lonely out here.” Yosuke sighed. Oh, Souji…

“Whoa, man, you look like crap!” Yosuke blurted when Souji opened the door for him. Souji sighed.

“I know,” he muttered in response, before shuffling out of the way to let Yosuke walk past him into the apartment. Yosuke winced.

“S-sorry, I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to be this bad,” he apologized, hastily removing his shoes and dropping the duffel bag he’d been carrying. He trailed awkwardly behind Souji as he made his way back over the couch and all but collapsed onto it, exhausted. Even just getting up to answer the door must have taken a lot out of him. “Dude, you really don’t look good. You should see a doctor.”

“It’s just a cold,” Souji insisted, wrapping himself up firmly in the comforter that had been abandoned on the couch. “I just need more rest and I’ll be fine.” He sighed. “I was hoping I’d be better when you got here...so much for that.”

“Partner, it’s fine,” Yosuke answered, hovering over him with an anxious look on his face. “Just...is there anything I can do?”

“No, no, don’t trouble yourself on my account,” Souji replied. He paused to sneeze, making a pathetic noise and reaching for a box of tissues on the table beside him. Yosuke frowned.

“It’s no trouble. Let me help you, okay? We’re Partners and...a-as your boyfriend, I want to do anything I can to make you feel better,” Yosuke replied. That got a smile out of Souji. They’d been dating for almost an entire year now, and Yosuke still found it hard to say things like that sometimes, but whenever he did he always thought it was worth it just to see him smile. 

“Just having you here is enough,” Souji said, but Yosuke shook his head.

“Oh no, you’re not pulling that crap on me, Souji,” Yosuke scolded, and Souji looked sheepish. “Want me to make you some soup? Extra blankets? Pillows?”

“Soup would be nice,” Souji replied, after a thoughtful moment. “Just make sure it doesn’t turn out to be Mystery Food X.”

“Hey, you never know, that might cure your cold,” Yosuke joked. “Besides, you taught me how to cook, how could I possibly mess up that badly?” Souji laughed, and Yosuke headed for the kitchen, to poke around the fridge and cabinets. 

About half an hour later he brought two steaming bowls of soup over to the couch, putting them carefully down on the little coffee table in front of it. Souji sat up from where he’d been dozing, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and Yosuke headed back for the kitchen. When he returned he had two cups of tea. 

“Eat up, Partner!” Yosuke said, sitting down beside him. “I put a lot of love into it, so I’m sure you’ll feel better in no time!” 

“Thanks, Yosuke,” Souji replied, with a dopey grin. Then he frowned. “I really want to kiss you right now, but that’s a bad idea for a lot of reasons…”

“Yeah...as much as I like making out with you, and believe me I  _ really _ do, I don’t want to catch your cold,” Yosuke said. Souji laughed.

“Are you sure you should be on the couch with me, then?” he asked, reaching for the spoon to start eating. 

“Probably not, but...man, it’s been too long since I got to see you in person, y’know?” Yosuke answered. Souji sighed.

“Sorry...I wish I hadn’t gotten sick…” he said.

“Hey, hey, don’t take it like that. You couldn’t have helped it anyway, dude, you work at a daycare. It just sucks that it happened right when I was coming to visit, that’s all…” Yosuke replied, and Souji nodded. He finally took a bite of his soup, and his eyebrows shot up. 

“Yosuke, this is really good! I’m impressed,” he complimented, and Yosuke flushed.

“Yeah, well, I learned from the best, right?” he deflected. “Now...shut up and eat, all right?”

The rest of the dinner passed in companionable silence, and Yosuke cleaned the dishes up quickly, putting the rest of the soup into some plastic containers for later. Souji looked a lot better by the time Yosuke joined him on the couch, nursing his second cup of tea. His eyes looked brighter, and he was sitting up instead of being slouched over. 

“Thanks, Yosuke. I needed that more than I thought...all I’ve been able to find the energy to eat for the past few days has been cup noodles and toast,” Souji explained, looking embarrassed. Yosuke frowned, inwardly cursing Souji’s absentee parents, and not for the first time tonight. He wanted to say something, but nothing good would come of it - it wasn’t like complaining would make his parents come back to take care of him, or anything.

Still… if they weren’t even here most of time, why had he had to come back to Tokyo at all? If he’d been in Inaba, he’d have Dojima-san and Nanako-chan to take care of him, not to mention Yosuke and all of the others…

“What’s that look for?” Souji asked, putting down his now empty teacup. Yosuke sighed.

“Just thinkin’ about how unfair it is that you’ve gotta be here and not in Inaba where you belong,” he said. Souji sighed too.

“Yeah…” he said, trailing off. “But they’re paying for me to go to a really nice school and...they’re my parents. They may not be here a lot, but they still want me here.”

“Bullshit…” Yosuke replied, but there was no bite in his voice. They’d had this discussion before. It sucked, but...it’s just how things were.

“Hey...why don’t we watch a movie? I’ll even let you pick,” Souji suggested, and even though Yosuke knew he was only trying to change the subject, he still let himself go along with it.

“Yeah? You got anything good?” he taunted, rising from the couch to shuffle over to the shelf of movies beside the TV. Most were documentaries and older movies, probably from Souji’s parents, but toward the bottom there were some titles that Yosuke recognized...wait…

“Are these...all the movies we went to see back when you were in Inaba?” Yosuke guessed, looking back at Souji for confirmation. Souji blushed in response, though it was a little hard to tell considering his face was already kind of flushed from the cold. He nodded. 

“All the ones we went to see once we started dating,” Souji clarified. Yosuke turned back to the shelf and, sure enough, they were. Souji had even put them in chronological order. “I...like to watch them when I get lonely out here.” Yosuke sighed. Oh, Souji…

“Dude, you know you can call me any time, right?” Yosuke pointed out, turning back to him with a sad expression. Souji bit his lip.

“I know, but you’re working hard in your classes, and at Junes, so…” Souji said, and when Yosuke made a noise of disapproval, he continued. “And if I called you every time I missed you, I’d be on the phone with you all the time. Once a day is enough.”

Yosuke turned back to the DVDs, frustrated, and grabbed one of them off the shelf with an annoyed sigh. He stomped over to the TV and put the DVD in. Then he turned to Souji with a deeply frustrated look on his face.

“This sucks,” he announced, to Souji’s amusement. He surprised Souji by grabbing an edge of the comforter Souji was wrapped in and tugging the blanket open, only to climb onto the couch right beside Souji and tug the blanket over himself, wrapping his arms around Souji’s torso and basically shoving his head under Souji’s chin.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Souji asked, bewildered, and Yosuke gave a ‘hmph’ sound in response.

“We’re cuddling for the whole movie,” he announced, and Souji gave a nervous chuckle.

“B-but, I don’t want to get you sick-” he started to protest. Yosuke just tightened his grip a little, snuggling against him more aggressively. He sighed in response, stretching his legs out and letting Yosuke shift until he was halfway laying on him, tangling their feet together. The movie started, and Souji noted that it was the one they’d seen on their first date. 

“Thanks, Yosuke,” Souji said, after a moment. 

“Sure,” Yosuke replied, looking up at Souji with a grin. “What are Partners for, huh? Just...take care of me if I get sick, okay?”

“No sympathy, you know the risks,” Souji replied, with a teasing grin. Yosuke gave a huge sigh in response. 

“I come all this way, and make you soup, and you won’t even take care of me if I get sick? How rude, Partner,” he complained. He felt Souji press a kiss against the top of his head, and blushed. “Hey...get better, alright? I still really want to kiss you.”

“I’ll try,” Souji promised, and they settled down to watch the movie together, enjoying the closeness even at the risk of viral peril. Even if Yosuke did get sick, or Souji didn’t recover before Yosuke had to go back to Inaba, that was fine. It was far from a wasted trip in Yosuke’s opinion. Taking care of each-other was what Partners...and boyfriends...did, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for Souyowrimo! Time for me to work on something new~


End file.
